Timeless Heroes
by jakeroo123
Summary: It all starts when Sonic finds a badly injured fox kid in a forest. Soon, one thing leads to another, and he's in a chase after Dr. Robotnik, who seems to have an even bigger scheme than last time. With new friends and strange events spiraling beyond his control, Sonic's got a lot on his plate, with the newly-named "Tails" along for the ride.
1. Brother

**Chapter 1: Brother**

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><p>He was running - again. That was really all he seemed to do, now. His life was really a never-ending cycle of pain and hunger. It hadn't always been like this... He'd been happy, once. He'd had a little house, perfect for a little fox like him, and there was no one else around. Maybe he got lonely sometimes, but that was before he knew what other people were like... How long ago was that, now? He couldn't remember…<p>

He kept running. He didn't dare use his 'special skills', as he thought of them, because that'd be even more reason for the bigger kids to beat him up. So he kept them hidden, even if they'd help a lot.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE DEFORMED FREAK!" One of the bullies chasing him yelled. Mobian Cheetah, male, thirteen years of age. Tawny fur, forest green eyes. Able to run at about 145 kph.

Though the little fox could easily run more than twice as fast as the cheetah, the fact was that he wasn't really in any position to do so. He was just too clumsy on his feet to go all-out in a forest like this. And since he lived here, he couldn't really avoid coming here... It was only a matter of time before he tripped and that crazy cheetah started beating on him again. And then his friends would come and join him.

He didn't even understand why they did this to him! Oh, sure, they said it was because of his "birth defect". But was it really that big of a deal? It was just an extra...

And he was so caught up in his thoughts that he tripped. The horrid preteen was on him in seconds, and wasted no time in clawing at his arms and stomping on each of his two tails in turn. Within the minute, he was joined by his two cronies, and the pain increased threefold.

* * *

><p>The fox groaned, picking himself up. Everything hurt... Though it was more of a dull ache by now, so it had to have been a few hours. He looked around, and froze. He wasn't in the same place where those three had knocked him out... He was in an actual house... Sort of... And an actual bed! He hadn't been in one of these since Cocoa Island... A pang of sadness at thinking of his home.<p>

The house wasn't anything special. It was an abandoned airplane, actually. Nice and roomy, but not what you immediately think when you think "home". It was the kind of place he'd LOVE to live, though. Airplanes... Heck, machines in general... There was nothing the four-and-a-half-year-old fox loved more than tinkering, except maybe flying. But that was a secret.

It began to dawn on him - Who had brought him here? What if one of the crazies had? Oh, no, he was probably in deep trouble... What was he gonna do? What if they were gonna make him do stuff! Or maybe some doctor lived here, and he was gonna stick him with a needle and put stuff in him! Or maybe cut off one of his... No. No! He was freaking out so much that he didn't notice the blue hedgehog walk inside and instantly rush over to him, a concerned look on his face.

"Hey, keed! What's the matter? Settle down!"

He continued freaking out, barely hearing the hedgehog, but definitely seeing him. He swatted the hedgehog's arm away, and tried to untangle himself from the sheets of the bed.

"Yowch!" the hedgehog said, rubbing his arm. "Strong little tyke... Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Yeah right!" the fox said. "Why'd you bring me here, then?"

"I find a kid knocked out in the forest. What was I supposed to do? Calm down, okay? Everything's okay, you're safe here. Look, my name is Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. And you?"

"Why's it matter?" he asked, glaring. "Jus' gonna make fun a me, anyway..."

"... Kid, why would I make fun of ya?" Sonic asked. "Be kind of a mean thing to do after saving ya, don't ya think?"

"'Cuz I'm a deformity... S'what everyone says..."

"Hold up, because you've got two tails?" Sonic asked. "... That's ridiculous! And i'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure both of your tails are perfectly healthy... Apart from your injuries. Anyway, I'm BLUE, and I can run faster than eight hundred miles per hour. And I like to think I'm no hypocrite."

The fox winced at the words 'miles per hour', but considered what the hedgehog said. Blue wasn't exactly a common color for hedgehogs... And running faster than the speed of sound? Even he wasn't that fast, and he'd never met someone who was actually faster than he was.

... Maybe he could trust this guy, after all. "... Sorry," he said. "I was jus' scared."

"How'd you get so beaten up, anyway?" Sonic asked. "And don't tell me you just tripped. I know that's not what happened."

"Mean kids. Chase me an' stuff. Tripped, an' they hit me a lot."

"What? They did WHAT to you?" Sonic asked, anger in his eyes. The fox winced a bit, and pulled back. Sonic's expression softened. "No, no, it's okay, keed... Why I oughta... They did that, and you're how old?"

"... Four?" he guessed. He really had no idea.

"Four. So you're telling me that some stupid kids beat up a four-year-old for having an extra tail." Sonic's voice was calm, but his body language was incredibly hostile. "... And do your parents do anything?"

"What's 'parents'?" the little fox asked. Were they good? He'd never really heard the word before.

"... Alright, kid. I've made my decision, then. You're staying here, with me, until we find somewhere safe and happy for you. Okay? But I'll need your name. Can't just call you kid, can I?"

"Sure you can... S'better than my name anyway..." the fox said. "Hate my name..."

"Oh... Hey, kid, I'm in the same boat. Tell you what, I'll give ya a nickname. And when ya feel like telling me your real name, I'll give ya mine. Deal?" Sonic asked, holding his hand out to shake.

The fox thought on this. It... Seemed fair, at least to his four-year-old mind. If he really hated his name as much as he did, then... Yeah. That'd be fine. He wasn't sure what the hedgehog was holding his hand out for, though, so he imitated him.

"... You grasp my hand and shake it," Sonic said. Oh. The little fox reached forward, and did so. "Great! All right. So... How about Tails? Sonic 'cuz I'm fast, and Tails 'cuz you got two awesome tails."

Awesome? Well... Yeah, maybe... He could use them to... But that was secret... The hedgehog thought they were cool just because he had two. That was... No one had ever thought that before... So... Yeah. It was perfect.

Tails smiled. "... I like it. Thanks, Sonic."

"Hey, what are friends for?" Sonic asked. "Now, just stay here for a bit, okay? No-one'll find ya, and I've got some things to take care of. Back in a flash! Or half of one!" He zoomed out of the room, leaving nothing but a blue streak and a bewildered yellow fox behind him.

"Friends?" Tails asked himself. "I have a _friend_?"

* * *

><p>Sonic had no idea what to think of his new little fox friend. From what little he'd gotten out of the fox, he was an orphan, and had been beaten up by people. Sonic… Deeply wanted to find those people and make them pay, because he knew what it was like to be treated that way. But he'd never had it as bad as little Tails did… He didn't trust himself to control himself in that situation.<p>

And he absolutely hated himself for thinking that way, but finding a kid with a broken leg, arm, and tail, plus the other tail looking like someone had tried to _rip it off_… What could even make them think of doing that? He was just a kid! But that wasn't what Sonic was out to deal with. He wanted them to get what was coming to them, sure, but it wasn't his place to decide what that was… And hurting someone just wasn't _him_.

The real priority was taking care of the little fox. And that meant extra food, and probably not the kind he usually ate since Tails probably hadn't been eating right anyway… Some medical supplies, because of the horrid condition he'd been in… And probably a spike-proof sleeping bag, so he could take the floor while Tails was recovering. Or longer. He had no idea yet, really.

It took him only thirty minutes or so to gather all the supplies he felt he needed. The way home was a fair bit slower, since he was weighed down by about half his weight in groceries, but he still managed faster than just about anyone else could've. The first thing he noticed when he got inside was that Tails wasn't in the bed. He panicked for a moment, before noticing that he was over by the TV… Which had somehow, in the time of thirty minutes, been completely dismantled by a little fox with a screwdriver and wrench he hadn't known the kit had.

Sonic took a deep breath, and set his groceries down before walking over to the fox to see what he was doing. It was an old TV anyway, didn't even show color, and there was nothing he really felt like watching, anyway. Plus he'd been meaning to get a new one that could actually handle having video games hooked up to it without spazzing out.

Tails was so engrossed with his 'work' that he didn't notice Sonic at all. He kept taking apart the components and putting them back together in new ways. He had a little bin full of paperclips with him, which he was using in his little project liberally. After about five minutes or so, he began putting all of the modified parts back in the TV, and screwed it all back together.

"Ta-da," Tails said quietly.

"Hey, keed," Sonic said. "Whatcha doin?"

"Sonic?" Tails asked. "… How long were you standin' there?"

"Five, ten minutes tops. So, what's up?"

"… Well, I wanted to watch tv, 'cuz people talk about how funny and cool it is an' stuff. But it was all black n' white, so I took it apart an' made it better. Wanna see?"

Sonic chuckled. "Sure, keed, show me what you got."

Tails plugged in the TV, and pressed the 'on' button. The screen flared to life, colorful and bright. Sonic's mouth dropped open. Tails… Had actually done exactly what he'd said he'd done. He'd changed the TV from a clunky greyscale monstrosity that changed its image maybe ten times a second, tops; to having better picture than any TV he'd ever seen, in full, vibrant colors. Even the audio sounded amazing! And it had taken him half an hour.

Sonic stared at Tails, who grinned, and sat down on the floor to watch the cartoon. And that's when it hit Sonic that Tails was completely fine. None of the injuries he'd had when he found him a few hours ago were there.

What the heck? Sonic rubbed his eyes, and looked again, just to make sure. The fox's arms and legs looked fine… He didn't have any cuts… His tails were waving about like they had a mind of their own, showing no signs of being either broken nor nearly being ripped off.

"… Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, Sonic?" Tails asked, still watching his cartoon.

"… Are you hurt, at all?"

"No, m'better now," Tails said. "S'been a few hours, hasn't it?"

"Yeah…" Sonic said, trailing off. "… I'm gonna go put groceries away now." Sonic walked off to do just that, deliberately going slow to give himself time to think. So, Tails… Healed fast? Well, he supposed it was possible, given that he himself was a supersonic hedgehog. But it was still a surprise. If he'd healed from that in just a few hours… How long had he been lying there when Sonic found him? Could it have been even worse? He hoped it hadn't been, but if Tails could recover from something like that on his own…

Sonic wasn't one to kid himself. It probably could've been much worse and the kid still would've been fine, at least physically. He hoped that the beating – Which, all things considered, probably wasn't his first like this – hadn't had some mental impact on him.

Briefly, he entertained the idea of letting Tails fight Robotnik with him, but shot down the idea as soon as he thought of it. Unless Tails had some other, unforeseen ability, just being able to heal quickly wouldn't help much. He'd finished with the groceries, so he went back to sit with Tails, who was still watching his cartoon. It was some kid's show, with a pair of brothers working together to build amazing machines. Tails seemed to be hooked, both on the machines and the relationship between the brothers.

"… Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, little bud?"

"… Could… maybe… c'n-we-be-brothers…"

Sonic didn't answer at first. Tails… Wanted that? He barely knew him!

... But, Sonic realized, I'm probably the first person who's ever been nice to him in a very long time. And… He doesn't want to lose me, does he?

Tails seemed downcast. "… I knew it was stupid…"

"No, no, Tails, it's not," Sonic said. "I just… Needed to think about it. Sure, keed… You can be my little bro. And how's about I whip us up some grub for dinner, huh?"

"… Food?" Tails asked. "But I ate this morning…"

"Bud, you're gonna need more than that. Just keep watching your cartoon, here. I'll be done soon."

* * *

><p>Thankfully, Tails wasn't a picky eater, and actually knew how to cook, to an extent (which just made Sonic wonder exactly how long he'd been on his own). He'd eat anything except bird meat and eggs, and it took Sonic several hours to console him once he found out that people would actually eat birds. He wouldn't tell Sonic why it bothered him, though, but Sonic still avoided the subject after that.<p>

Life went on. Sonic continued taking care of Tails, and learned more and more about the little kit. He'd lived in that forest for two years on his own, really liked machines, especially flying ones, and _especially _helicopters because they could fly, just like… He'd changed the subject, so Sonic didn't actually know what helicopters reminded him of, but he didn't press the matter. He grew more and more comfortable with Sonic, and even joined him out on the beach sometimes.

It was a week or so later when the thunderstorm hit. Now, Sonic didn't really care – He actually loved the sound rain made, it helped him sleep. But Tails seemed a bit on edge about it, and Sonic wasn't sure why. It was only in the middle of the night, when a thunderclap sounded, that Sonic figured it out. The thunderclap didn't wake him up – He was used to them. But the shrill scream of a fox could wake up anybody.

Sonic jumped out of bed at the sudden noise, and looked around for Tails. Eventually, he heard whimpering above him, and looked up to see Tails clutching a pipe on the ceiling some fifteen feet above him.

"Keed?" Sonic asked. "How'd you get up there? What's wrong?"

"L…l…lightning!" Tails said, shaking in fear. "'M… fraid of lightning!"

"Oh… Oh!" Sonic said, surprised by this. Afraid of lightning? Huh… He'd never have expected that, he was such a cheerful little fellow despite all his hardships… And lightning was what scared him. "Tails, come on down here. How's about we stay up tonight, just until the storm passes? Nothin' ta be scared of if I'm up with ya, right?"

"… I… Guess," Tails said, jumping down from the ceiling into Sonic's arms.

"Alright then. C'mon, little bud. Let's watch some movies, get your mind off things."

And so they did, or one, anyway. Tails wasn't able to stay awake through the movie, which Sonic hadn't really expected him to. He continued watching, though, because it was a nice story. Eventually, he too fell asleep, right with Tails so the little fox wouldn't be scared.

That night, Sonic had a very strange dream. It started out alright, he saw a nice little island… An adult brown fox going about his daily life, living at his home on the beach, going into the forest for food. A cry for help, and he was rushing off to the beach. There he found a (rather pretty, Sonic had to admit) fox lady, red in color and clearly hurt.

The man nursed the woman back to health, and they became fast friends. The man had been on the island all his life, just like every member of his family before him had. He hadn't even really known, beyond what the things in the hidden library somewhere deep in the Poloy Forest said, that there was even more to the world.

The lady had said there was so much more, but this was still the nicest place she'd ever been. Anywhere else, and you might get stuck in the eternal conflict between the Nocturnus and Knuckles clans over control of the Master Emerald. Or worse, end up dealing with one of the many, many factions that were trying to use the age-old conflict to take the world for themselves, and possibly claim the Master Emerald for themselves. Or, even better, the Chaos Emeralds, but those had been lost for thousands of years with the island of their guardians. It was said that the Emeralds themselves even chose who could and couldn't find the island.

The term Chaos Emeralds had sounded familiar to the man, but he could never place it. Once the woman was healthy again, she decided to ask if she could stay with the man on this island, instead of returning, as she had no family and this place was so much safer.

He'd agreed, and the two had started a life together, on that little beach in the little house.

Before Sonic could see more, he woke up, and it was morning. He immediately got to getting breakfast ready, the strange dream at the back of his mind.

* * *

><p><em>This is an idea I've had on my mind for awhile. This is, honestly, one of the longest chapters I've ever written. It was written over the course of a few days, largely because I wanted to make sure I had things as I wanted it.<br>_

_This story doesn't really follow any particular continuity. While it is mostly based in the games, it doesn't entirely follow their storyline, and uses several elements and details from other continuities (For example: Sonic's house is from the movie). The next few chapters - Which will probably release somewhat slower than my usual four chapters a week "schedule" on a story I'm REALLY into (like "Festival of the Sun and Stars") - Will be based on the plot of Sonic 2, Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles, with some differences. They're mostly set up, really, to be honest... I want to try getting used to writing these guys on their own, and, of couse, drop in some foreshadowing here and there for the bigger plot. Like Sonic's dream, I think that's pretty obviously important.  
><em>

_This is also my first fic I'm rating T, just in case._

**Brother**


	2. The Adventure Begins

**Chapter 2: The Adventure Begins  
><strong>

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><p>Over their toast and cereal (which Tails was fascinated with), Sonic decided that today he'd be showing Tails a bit of a surprise. The kid was in love with machines, especially flying ones, and today was the day he'd finally show him the Tornado. They were even going to go on a little flight with it! He was sure the kid would appreciate that.<p>

"Hey, bro, got a surprise for after breakfast."

"Really?" Tails asked excitedly. "What's it? Ooh! I know! It's mint candy!" Tails had taken a shine to peppermints ever since Sonic gave him one, and probably would have eaten nothing but if given the chance. Which was why Sonic didn't give him that chance.

Sonic grinned. "Nope. Better!"

"Better? What is it? It's gotta be something awesome if it's better!"

"Just wait and see, little bud. I'll show ya once you finish your breakfast."

He knew Tails was a fast eater, but with the speed that kid put away his food, he could've mistaken him for himself. Apart from the fact that he was, well, a yellow two-tailed fox. He'd finished in minutes, and was trying to drag Sonic away from the table. Sonic grabbed his last piece of toast, and led the fox out to the little garage.

Tails LOVED the Tornado. As soon as Sonic showed him the plane, he'd spent several minutes just looking at it from every direction, gushing about how cool it was.

"You know what's even cooler, bud?" Sonic asked.

"What? Does it turn into a robot?"

"Ah… No. But we're going on a bit of a flight, to Westside Island! See, I was planning on taking a bit of a vacay there, already. Then you came along, so… Well, I'm bringing you along! Isn't that great?"

"We're gonna fly?" Tails asked, eyes shining. "I love flying! It's so… Just, whoosh! It's like… like… I dunno! S'amazin'!"

"Whoa, keed, you've been in a plane before?"

"Nuh-uh," Tails said. "Letsgoletsgoletsgo!"

Sonic chuckled. "Sure thing, keed. Get in the back, and make sure your seatbelt's on, for safety, you know."

Tails did with much enthusiasm, and minutes later they were flying out over the ocean. For the first time in a few hours, Sonic thought about his dream.

_What was that dream all about?_ Sonic asked himself. _I've never seen anything like that before._

_Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something?_ Sonic guessed. _But that's ridiculous… I'm just a hedgehog. But… The Chaos Emeralds…_

_They're supposed to hold mystical powers. Maybe it happened because I was collecting them? But why only now, and not a year ago when I actually had them with me? I've got a bad feeling about this…_

Westside Island. It wasn't nearly as nice as South Island, but it was definitely good enough. Especially Emerald Hill, where they made their landing. Sonic hopped out of the pilot's seat, taking a deep breath of air. This was the kind of place to be… Rolling green hills, waterfalls, nice long stretches of land to run… It reminded him of Green Hill. It spoke to him in a way other places couldn't really compare to.

"So, bud," Sonic asked, grinning at his little foxy friend. "Wanna run?"

"Really? But how'll I keep up?"

"Hey, I'm not gonna leave you behind! You lead, bro."

"Really?" Tails asked.

"Really."

Tails jumped out of the plane, and took off. Sonic jumped a little at how fast his little friend was, not as fast as him, but still a heck of a lot closer than anyone but Mighty had ever gotten to matching his speed. Sonic ran after him, grinning at the thought of having someone he could really run with, what with his old friend's job at that detective agency. Come to think of it… They were actually going even faster than Mighty could run.

Sonic ran up alongside next to Tails, and gave the little fox a thumbs-up. He didn't say so, but he really was impressed with his speed – Much faster, and they'd be moving faster than sound.

Tails smiled at the gesture, and continued running. Sonic was happy for him! That meant a lot for the little fox. Still, though, running as fast as he could was a little tiring. Useful when being chased, as long as there wasn't anything to trip on, but still very tiring. If only he could… No, that was a secret.

He didn't have to worry, though. There was a cool machine thing up ahead! It looked like some sort of drill-car thing. Why it was there, Tails had no idea, but he had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to do with it. He jumped for it, pulling his little wrench out of nowhere, only to be roughly grabbed by Sonic and pushed behind the blue hedgehog.

"Oh ho ho! Why, if it isn't Sonic!" A voice laughed. Tails looked up in awe at a flying, egg-shaped hovercar, holding an immensely fat… Something. It had red clothes all over its body (but it didn't sound like a girl), and its only hair was a couple of long, think tufts beneath its pink nose. Tails couldn't see the eyes, because they were covered by thick glasses.

"Who're you? What're you?" Tails asked.

"Tails! Don't be rude to the evil villain!" Sonic said, then realized what he was saying "…Okay, actually, yes, be rude to the evil villain, but you didn't know he was the evil villain!"

"I am Doctor Robotnik," The fat human said, as his hovercar came down into a slot on the drill car designed to fit it perfectly. "And, as Sonic said, I am the 'evil villain', though frankly I believe a world populated by robots would be better than one populated by idiotic humans and whatever-it-is you colorful furballs call yourselves."

"What's a human?"

"I am, dunce! Ugh, you're irritating. Fine, then! Prepare to eat drill!" Robotnik said, as he drove forward slowly in his little car.

"… This thing wasn't even supposed to fight me, was it?" Sonic taunted, as he easily curled into a ball and bounced off where he guessed the engine was.

"Shut up! It's a… Work in progress!" Robotnik yelled, furious. The fact was, it wasn't to fight him. It was supposed to drill through the hills to make his search for the Chaos Emeralds go faster, but he hadn't anticipated the hedgehog showing up, especially not right after he'd found the first Chaos Emerald. And, apparently, the hedgehog hadn't notice he'd left the little fox unprotected. Robotnik smirked. Let's see how he likes getting his little friend hurt, then. He put the drill car into full power, blazing towards the fox who surely wouldn't be able to…

Tails jumped in the air, curling into a ball like Sonic, and bounced on top of Robotnik's machine twice. Before Robotnik could process this, Tails had landed behind him. When he did finally get it, though, he told his Egg-O-Matic to assess the damage. 37.5%, which meant that the little fox hit as hard as Sonic, despite having no spikes at all and appearing to be rather soft and fluffy. "How in the heck?" Robotnik yelled, as he made a u-turn and drove at Sonic and Tails again. Sonic and Tails both jumped this time, each bouncing on his machine twice. "STOP IT! THAT DEFIES PHYSICS!"

"What's a physics, Sonic?" Tails asked curiously, not in the least worried about Robotnik.

"I'll try and explain later, buddy," Sonic said. "… But I'm not sure you'll understand." Admittedly, Sonic might have freaked out about Tails being able to do that, too, but he'd already figured out there was something unusual about his little fox friend. And he was more concerned with Robotnik, anyway. Speaking of… Sonic and Tails dodged out of the way, with the former curling into a stationary Spin Dash aimed straight for the back of Robotnik's machine.

A second later, he was off, blasting straight into the back and setting off the usual chain reaction explosion. Robotnik flew his Egg-O-Matic out of the wreckage, glaring at Sonic and his new friend.

"This isn't the end!" He yelled, flying off. Sonic dropped to the ground, sighing.

"Something wrong, Sonic?" Tails asked. "Who was that?"

"He's the bad guy," Sonic said. "… Robotnik. He… I'm not sure what he wants, even. But whatever it is, he's got horrible methods, so he needs to be stopped. He traps animals in robots, and uses them as batteries."

"… That's mean and stupid."

Sonic laughed dryly. "Yeah, it is, Tails, it is. Anyway, about a year ago, he tried doing this on South Island. That's where I live. So… I ran off, and took him out, spinning through all his machines, just like I did there… And you too, actually. When did you learn _that_?"

Tails was quiet for a moment. "… Back on my island… when I had a home…"

"Your island?" Sonic asked, curious.

"Yeah… It was nice, until these mean birds with robots showed up, lookin' for tha… Chase Emerals? Somthin' like that. But I stopped 'em, an'… I dunno what happened. They went away, and I kept the emerl things. It kinda went back to normal for awhile, then I jus' woke up in that forest you found me in. An' that was all for a real long time, Sonic, 'till you came an' helped me."

"… You collected the Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, that was it!"

"… Huh… Well, so did I, when Robotnik attacked for the first time, about a year ago. I'm guessing we'll probably have to collect them again."

"Then it's good Robotnik dropped it, huh?" Tails asked, picking up the red Chaos Emerald off the ground.

"… Keed, you continue to amaze me," Sonic said, standing up. "Come on, bud. We've got an egghead to catch." He grabbed onto Tails' arm. "We're up… Over… and GONE!" Sonic zoomed off, smashing through the sound barrier with Tails in tow.

* * *

><p>Soon, the duo reached a large city, full of strange, purple water. Sonic internally groaned, he HATED water. And it being purple didn't bode at all well. Still, though, there seemed to be plenty of pathways to avoid the toxic-looking liquid.<p>

It soon became clear that Robotnik was ready for them this time. A bunch of robotic spiders colored like bees hung from ceilings. Every couple of minutes or so, one of them would grab Sonic, and if Tails hadn't been there to bash them… Well, it probably would have ended painfully.

This place was so much different from Emerald Hill, but, at the same time, it gave a very similar sense of sheer speed. Rather than having huge, open spaces to run in, though, it was built like a rollercoaster of a road. Sonic dashed through everything, Tails doing everything he could (except his little secret, unless he was absolutely sure Sonic wasn't looking) to keep up.

"D'you think Robotnik built this place?" Tails asked, as they came to a section where they didn't have to speed along quite so quickly.

"It's possible," Sonic admitted. "But I think he probably just took over. This place is way too fast for him, y'know? It's not like he can run through this place like this."

"Oh… Why's he do it, Sonic?"

"I don't know, bud," Sonic admitted. "Maybe we'll find out... But, for now, let's just keep looking around."

It wasn't long before Tails spotted something unusual, and got curious. He crawled into a little hole that Sonic was too big to fit into, and Sonic was unfortunately forced to wait for the little fox to come back out. When he did a minute later, he had the blue Chaos Emerald with him.

"… How did you know it was there?" Sonic asked. Even he'd had to look for these things harder than that…

Tails shrugged, and Sonic let it slide. It meant Robotnik didn't have them, anyway. Sonic took the Blue Emerald at Tails' insistence ("It's your color!"), and they continued onwards.

Soon enough, they came right to Robotnik, who actually seemed… Slightly more prepared this time. Slightly. He had a water tank strapped to his Egg-O-Matic, and met them on a platform jutting out of the purple water.

Sonic couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, Ro-butt-nik-"

"SHUT UP! ROBOTNIK!"

"Meh. What's with that thing? Gonna give me a shower?"

"Oh, this? Nothing much, it just mixes up the chemicals from this here chemical plant. I WAS trying to perfect a solution to make the populace obedient to me, but, unfortunately, you showed up. However…" Robotnik grinned evilly. "It was quite easy to brew up a reflex-suppressing neurotoxin, under the assumption you'd come here."

"Why not jus' use poison?" Tails asked.

"Tails, don't give villains ideas, either," Sonic said.

"Because of the whole freakishly-fast metabolism thing!" Robotnik yelled. "That affects things like the rates at which poison is flushed, too! No, far easier to destroy his reflexes, then drown him. Does that answer your question, you stupid little fox brat?"

"M'not stupid!" Tails yelled, pulling a bomb out of nowhere and tossing it at Robotnik's machine, blowing up the tank with a single shot.

"What the… GAH! You… Fox… Thing! You've made yourself an enemy today!" Robotnik said, flying off to leave Sonic and Tails alone again.

"… Uh, Tails? Where did you get that?"

"What'ya mean?" Tails asked. "I've always got 'em. Jus' didn't need 'em."

"Okay… Tails, we're going to talk about this later, alright?" Sonic asked. "But, well, most people don't have bombs with them. For now, just be careful not to hurt anyone, especially yourself, okay?"

"Okay!" Tails said cheerfully, running forward. Sonic followed, thinking again on the weird little fox he'd befriended. Just what was up with his little buddy?

A short hop over a five-foot gap of water later – Which was so far by far the most nerve-wracking thing to Sonic today, he really didn't like being in any position to fall into water too deep to jump out of – And they were ready to free the people and animals Eggman had imprisoned inside his metal capsule… Things. Sonic never knew the purpose of these, but they were easy to get people out of. Tails hid behind a wall, and let Sonic get all the praise for saving them. Whenever Sonic tried to get him to come out and say hi, he just kept hiding, scared of everyone else.

Once the crowd had dispersed a bit, Sonic spoke to Tails "Okay, bud, they're gone now. Come on out."

Tails slowly peeked out from his hiding spot, and, seeing that Sonic was telling the truth, walked over to him and hugged him.

"Sonic, I was so scared! There were jus' so _many_…"

"Hey, bud, people are nothin' ta be afraid of, okay? Most aren't like the ones who picked on you. Anyway, come on – We need to figure out where Robotnik's off to next."

Tails let go of Sonic, and nodded in agreement. Soon, the two were off to find where Robotnik would strike next.

* * *

><p>No. He wasn't gonna do it. Nuh-uh, no way, no how. Not after Labyrinth…<p>

Okay, he was going to. He didn't have much choice, unless he wanted Tails to fight Robotnik all on his own, or just let him do… Whatever it was he was trying to do. And he wanted that even less than he wanted to deal with THIS.

The next part of the island was some interesting ruins. Well-preserved structures, and it didn't seem particularly dangerous, however there was still a huge issue Sonic had with this area: It was half underwater. It was beautiful, but he really hated the idea of going in the water. Tails, on the other hand, jumped in and started paddling around happily.

Sonic changed his mind when one of the pillars opened up and shot an arrow at his little buddy (thankfully missing), and jumped into the water, holding his breath. He let Tails lead the way, stopping at air vents every few seconds to make sure he didn't… Well, drown. Tails just seemed content with swimming back to the surface. Sonic was a bit envious, though, since Tails could pretty clearly hold his breath quite a bit longer than he could.

If not for the whole worrying about drowning thing, it would've been quite peaceful. Robotnik did not seem to have thought of putting robots down here, probably knowing Sonic would never think of coming down here… Honestly, when he could just reach the capsule and press the button to release them all at once, it was way easier than going one-by-one, and the majority were still in the capsule anyway.

Tails seemed to have spotted something, and was swimming into a little hole. Had there been air, Sonic would have sighed, but instead followed Tails into the tunnel. Thankfully, it sloped upwards, and they came out in a little dry room, where Tails had… Found another Chaos Emerald, the yellow one this time.

"Lookit, Sonic!" Tails said. "I found 'nother one!"

Sonic smiled. "Heh, good job, Tails."

"Why're you 'fraid a the water?" Tails asked, holding the Chaos Emerald to Sonic.

He'd noticed? Well, nothing for it but the truth, then. "I can't swim, bud. Run like the wind, sink like a rock. And keep it, bud, this one's your color."

"Okay!" Tails said happily. "… Uh… wanna… dry off?"

Sonic laughed a bit. "Bud, yes! I do! Don't like water… And these carvings are kind of interesting," He said, moving over to the back wall of the little room. The carvings were actually very interesting, if kind of confusing.

A… Giant balloon? Something big and round, chained to a few mountains above a lake. An arrow coming from it, leading to a drawing of an island, surrounded by seven shapes that looked like Chaos Emeralds, plus a few that looked like foxes or birds. The weirdest thing, though, had to be what looked like an ancient carving of Robotnik's logo over the arrow.

… Okay, creepy prophetic carvings. No wonder the Chaos Emerald ended up here… Well, time to go. Sonic got Tails, who had been looking at the carving, too, though he seemed more concerned about the island than Robotnik's face.

A few minutes later, and Sonic decided it was finally time to emerge from the water. He jumped out, Tails quick to follow, and they found Robotnik waiting for them.

"Oh, ho ho ho!" He laughed. "Sonic! Fox thing! It's time to meet you demise!" Two pillars rose up out of the ground, and an absolutely gigantic hammer popped out of the Egg-O-Matic. "Get a load of this one, Sonic!" He pounded one of the pillars, causing an arrow to shoot out of it straight for Sonic. He jumped up, kicking off of it and curling into a ball to slam into the bottom of the Egg-O-Matic.

"Gotta do better than that, Egghead!" Sonic yelled as he landed back on the ground.

"That's not how I see it, Sonic. You see, I've got a hammer, and you don't." Suddenly, a small, plastic-looking hammer hit the bottom of the Egg-O-Matic, having just been thrown by Tails. Despite it appearing like a toy, it managed to do even more damage than Sonic's Spin Jump had done.

"Gah! Where the heck do you people keep those things?" Robotnik asked, as Tails grabbed the hammer out of the air and pocketed it.

"Pockets!" Tails said. "Uh… I think?"

"But you don't even… Never mind!" Robotnik slammed his own giant, metal hammer down on one of the pillars, sending an arrow straight for Sonic's back. It never reached him, since Tails jumped in the way and intercepted it. Tails fell to the ground, groaning, and Sonic looked on in shock. Then anger at Dr. Robotnik.

"… DON'T HURT TAILS!" Sonic yelled, running up the side of the pillar nearest to him, and blasting off it to crash into the Egg-O-Matic like a cannonball. He repeated it, again and again until it looked like the machine was about to fall out of the sky.

Robotnik took the hint, and dashed away. Sonic didn't go for the capsule this time, instead he immediately went to Tails, who was sitting up now.

"Bud? You okay?" Sonic asked, staring at the arrow that was still sticking out of his little buddy.

"Hurts," Tails said. "M'fine…" He got up, and tried to walk. He took a few steps, wincing.

"Okay… bud, uh… Might want to get that arrow out…" Sonic said, trying to sound calmer than he felt. Tails looked down, seeming surprised to see it, and just pulled it out. He yelped, but thankfully it came out and didn't draw blood… Somehow, probably something to do with that weird healing thing. Sonic was kind of glad, he might have lost it if it did.

"… Okay… Okay, you're fine, bud," Sonic said, mostly trying to assure himself.

"I know," Tails said. "Doesn't hurt 'nymore."

"That's good… good… Okay, keed, how about a ride? We rescue whatever's in that capsule, then just… Find somewhere to rest for the night, okay?"

"Okay!" Tails said, as Sonic went over to bust open the capsule. There weren't any actual people this time, just some flickies. Tails seemed quite interested in those, actually, and was listening intently to their chirps. But a few minutes later, they'd flown off, and Sonic hoisted Tails onto his back before taking off to wherever they were going.

* * *

><p>Thankfully, there was actually a casino city along the way. Sonic had heard of these places – Apparently they were great fun. It was getting dark, though that really didn't matter since the city was so bright. The locals were actually out and about, so that meant that Robotnik had ignored this place, for once. It took a few minutes of talking to get a hotel; and a short run and some money later, he and Tails were lying down to bed in a little hotel room.<p>

"G'night, Sonic," Tails said.

"Good night, Tails," Sonic said.

"You're… (yawn)… the best big…" Tails trailed off, already beginning to snore.

"… You're the best, too, little bro," Sonic said, before lying down to sleep next to the fox.

Once more, Sonic was plagued by a strange dream.

The same two foxes as last time were spending time together in the little house owned by the male fox. They were chatting with each other, generally having a good time. The man said he had a surprise, and walked out of the room for a minute.

The woman smiled, seeming to expect something. What, Sonic wasn't entirely sure of. Then the man returned, grinning madly and a tell-tale cyan glow from something he held behind his back. He bent down, holding out the cyan Chaos Emerald, and asked the other fox – Rosemary, Sonic heard her name – to marry him.

She didn't make a huge scene and overreact. Instead, she just smiled, her bright blue eyes shining, and said of course she would. She'd have even asked him herself if he'd waited too much longer.

Sonic woke up in the early hours of the morning, Tails still sleeping. He didn't want to wake the little fox up, though, and thought back on the strange dream, and tried to figure out how it connected. The dreams seemed too real to be just coincidence, and the fact that there was a Chaos Emerald in that second one really made it seem unlikely that they were. Somehow, the foxes looked kind of familiar, even though he was sure he'd never seen them before…

There wasn't anything he could really do about it, though, and he wasn't really one to dwell on things. So, he got to work figuring out what was for breakfast. It might be nice to have a bit of restaurant, or hotel, whichever, food today… And he knew just what he wanted Tails to try. It was chili-dog time!

* * *

><p><em>FOUR. THOUSAND. WORDS. This is, officially, the longest chapter I have ever written, by several hundred words. Whew. I just got lucky with having not much schoolwork today (I'm enrolled in college online).<em>

__So, there we are! First four zones of Sonic 2._ I made Casino Night into a bit of a breather, and they're not even going to collect an emerald there... Sonic probably needed it after that little experience, though. And Tails still hasn't told him he can fly._

_More foreshadowing dreams. Yeah, it's kind of an obvious way to foreshadow something, I admit… As are the 'prophetic carvings'... But I'm hoping that I can at least keep their cause and relevance a surprise! If you know who the two foxes are, then… Well, I kind of expected people to guess correctly, even if no one's mentioned it. The only thing they have in common with their official portrayals are the names, though.  
><em>


	3. A Chaotic Turn

**Chapter 3: A Chaotic Turn**

* * *

><p>Tails woke up to find Sonic sitting next to him on the bed, holding a tray of a food Tails had never seen before. Each… dish, if you could call it that… was a compressed stick of cooked ground meat on a bun, covered in a spicy-smelling sauce and cheese.<p>

"Hey, sleepyhead!" Sonic said happily. "Thought we'd have somethin' a bit special for breakfast, you know? This is my favorite food: Chili-dogs! Hot dogs smothered in chili sauce and cheese. Go on, try one!"

Tails did, taking a huge bite right off the bat. It wasn't bad, he decided, it was actually pretty good. He finished it off in under a minute. Sonic, in that time, had inhaled three, and offered Tails the remaining two. He was only able to finish one of the two, and let Sonic have the other one (which disappeared in about five seconds).

"So, what's the verdict, buddy?" Sonic asked.

"It's good," Tails said.

Sonic smiled. "Hey, glad you like it, bud. Anyway, we've gotta get going. Figure out what's up with Robotnik, ya know?"

After picking up and saying farewell to the hotel staff, hedgehog and fox were off for the mountains nearby. The area actually reminded Sonic a lot of where they'd first landed on the island, apart from the fact that the dirt was blue.

"Why's the dirt blue, anyway?" Sonic asked Tails, as they took a lift across a gap and up to the mountain itself. "Isn't it usually, you know, brown?"

"You're blue," Tails pointed out.

"… Good point, little bud," Sonic laughed, as he jumped off the blue platform onto the grass with Tails. "Good point." The two ran forward, only to skid to a stop as they came across a river of lava with a platform bobbing up and down in the middle.

"That's dangerous," Sonic noted, as he picked up Tails and carefully jumped to the platform and then the other said.

"Lava hurts," Tails agreed as Sonic let him down. The two ran ahead, Sonic wisely choosing to, instead of going into a tunnel that looked like it went through the bulk of the mountain, go around. It definitely was a harder and more treacherous route, at least it would be for a normal hiker. It was still pretty hard for Sonic and Tails, the path was thin, but at least Sonic knew that he'd be fine if he fell off a mountain. He wasn't so sure he'd be fine if he fell into lava... He'd barely avoided it back in Marble Zone, and he really didn't want to find out now. Tails… He honestly wasn't sure, but there was no way he was leaving Tails alone anywhere after that last fight with Robotnik.

Even with the risk of falling and having to climb back up, it was actually quite peaceful to just climb around the mountain. Tails seemed very confident about this, not even caring that they were so high above the ground as he jumped from ledge to ledge.

"… Ever climbed a mountain before?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah!" Tails said excitedly. "There was one on Cocoa Island! It was like, woow! So big! And so high! It was like touching the clouds an' it was awesome! There's clouds down there Sonic, didya see?" Tails asked, pointing down at the clouds far below them.

"I did, bud," Sonic said. "That's crazy, isn't it? We're so high up…"

"Innit great?" Tails asked, grinning widely. He absolutely loved being this high up… He'd never had any reason to be afraid of heights, because he could… Well, that was a secret… Maybe he'd tell Sonic soon, though… With nothing to fear, you could just enjoy all the pretty stuff you could see from up here!

Sonic peeked around the corner of the mountain, thinking they must have reached the other side by now. And he was right – Just a little ways away, floating above a ring of lava with a small platform in the middle (how the heck did something like that even form?) was Dr. Robotnik's Egg-O-Matic, this time with an actual cover over it instead of just being open to the elements. The man himself was lounging inside, reading some science magazine.

Sonic ducked back behind, and turned to Tails. "Okay, bud, think you'll be fine sitting this one out?"

"Why?" Tails asked.

"'Cuz, he might get you again," Sonic explained. "And… Well, just let me handle it, okay?"

"Okeydokey!" Tails said, and sat down and started playing with one of his tails. Sonic ran off towards Robotnik, skidding to a stop a few feet from the lava. Robotnik didn't notice, and just kept reading his book. Sonic waited a few more minutes, and he still didn't notice. Then Sonic just jumped into his machine, knocking it down into the lava. A moment later, it burst out, nearly splashing the viscous silicate liquid over Sonic.

"Hedgehog!" Robotnik bellowed. "You made me lose my page! Oh, where's your little fox? Did I hurt it?" Robotnik taunted. "Good! Now, I've got something for you, too. Just being fair, you see, after all, you deserve what you friend got too." A small rod rose up from the machine, holding none other than the green Chaos Emerald. The Emerald began to glow, and Sonic barely had time to dodge to the side as it sent a hyperfast jet of flame at him, setting the ground he'd just been standing on on fire.

"You like it, Sonic?" Robotnik teased. "You always did wonder what I'd do with the Chaos Emeralds. Oh, I feel a monologue coming on!" Sonic dodged another jet of flame, glaring at Robotnik. "You see, Sonic, Chaos is power. The Chaos Emeralds have nearly limitless energy. And I've finally had a breakthrough in using that energy!"

"You made a flamethrower," Sonic said, as he dodged another jet of flame. "Hardly a breakthrough!"

"Please. This is just the beginning! Oh ho ho!" Robotnik taunted, going into his evil laugh. "And it's enough to deal with you! The only place safe from this thing is under it or over it. And, as you can see, I've picked out battlefield quite well, if I do say so myself; and you may have noticed your distinct lack of wings."

_Thank you, egghead!_ Sonic thought. _If I can't go under your machine or over the Emerald… Why not in between the Emerald and your machine?_ Sonic jumped for Eggman, not even bothering to curl into a ball, and grabbed onto the rod holding up the Emerald.

"Alright, let's take it for a spin!" Sonic yelled, as his feet touched the reinforced glass of the Egg-O-Matic. He began running as fast as he could, using the pole to keep himself from falling off. He'd hoped that this would spin it out of control, but it wasn't turning out that way. Robotnik just seemed annoyed more than anything else.

"Did you really think that would work, you idiotic hedgehog?" Robotnik asked. "I thought you'd try that. By the way, I lied. The Emerald can still hit you!"

_Crud,_ Sonic thought. _I need a new plan. If only… Hang on. He said "Chaos is Power". Maybe if… No, that's crazy. But is it crazy enough to work?_

… Well, it was worth a shot, anyway. Sonic grabbed onto the green Chaos Emerald, holding the blue one in his other hand, and wished as hard as he could that this would work. The green Chaos Emerald popped out of its socket, and Sonic felt a surge of strength. Instinctively, he jumped off the Egg-O-Matic, spinning into a ball as he did so. He didn't reach the ground – Somehow, he was changing direction in mid-air, curled into a ball and swinging in circles around the lava pool, faster than he'd ever run before.

While Sonic couldn't see the results, they were immediately evident to Robotnik. His eyes widened… Sonic, using the Chaos Emerald's power on his own? No… It couldn't be possible, could it? Natural Chaos abilities just didn't happen… Did they? He noticed that he was losing control of the Egg-O-Matic, and now really wasn't the time to worry about it. He tried to get it under control, but it just kept getting hard and harder, and he couldn't tell why until he looked out of his window.

Sonic had become less of a blue ball, now, and more of a blue _tornado_. He was zipping around faster than the eye could see, kicking up winds so fast that it was blowing the Egg-O-Matic around. Robotnik could even see the lava hardening from the air being sucked away, peeling off more and more of its heat with it. A second later, he lost control completely, and the Egg-O-Matic was hurtling out of the top of the tornado, to parts unknown.

Sonic dropped to the ground, panting. He looked over to where Robotnik had been, and saw nothing but newly-formed basalt. Suddenly, he was tackled by a little fox, and it took him a moment to process what Tails was saying.

"Tha'was-so-COOL! You were all zoom and zip and kapow and bye-bye Robotnik! How'd you do it, Sonic?" Tails asked, beaming at his big bro.

"… I don't know," Sonic admitted. "… I really don't know, little buddy…"

* * *

><p>The only way to go from there was actually into a cave – Quite literally, there didn't seem to be any way around for miles. And Tails had wanted to go into the cave this time, and had even told Sonic that he didn't think it was a lava cave, lava caves looked different on the inside.<p>

… Which was good to know, but not something he really wanted to hear from Tails, because he really didn't want to think about where the kit had learned it. But, either way, there wasn't a choice this time – He'd actually tried running around it, just to be sure, and found that this huge plateau was flanked on both sides by enormous lakes. The cave was the only way through, and so, the duo went spelunking.

It actually turned out to be far safer than he expected. There were walkways built through the cave, and lights everywhere. Bar the occasional firefly-shaped robot and spike trap, which Sonic was sure were both new additions by Robotnik, there was nothing to be afraid of. Tails seemed a bit edgy, though, though, and it was a long while before Sonic asked why.

"Something up, bud?"

"No… M'fine, Sonic…"

"Nah, Tails, somethin's botherin' ya. What is it?"

"… Can't see th'sky," Tails said. "… Feels weird…"

"Ah, gotcha," Sonic said. He wasn't too fond of caves himself, to be quite honest… There was usually the risk of crashing into something, and that was not an enjoyable experience at eight hundred miles per hour. "But, hey, this place is beautiful, huh? Maybe we can find somethin' interesting. Come on!" Sonic ran forward, slow enough for Tails to keep up, and kept his eyes peeled. It wasn't long before he found a side tunnel, and stopped to look down it. There was a light some distance away in there, just a normal-looking, white light.

"Like this. Doesn't look like anyone uses this one, but there's light there. Let's go check it out, and make sure Robotnik's not stirring up trouble."

"Yeah! He's gonna… uh… not like doing this!" Tails said, as he followed Sonic into the tunnel.

It was actually just a dead end, but it still managed to turn up something useful. The light Sonic had seen turned out to be the next Chaos Emerald, the white one this time. Tails was a bit disappointed it wasn't some sort of "flying drill thingamabob", but Sonic was glad they'd found another Chaos Emerald. They went back to the main cave, and Sonic thought back… He seemed to be doing that a lot more than usual these days.

When he'd last seen Eggman, he'd somehow used the Chaos Emeralds to do... something. He had no idea how it was possible, but it sure explained a lot about why Eggman was looking for them. If he could do THAT with just two… What could all seven do?

Sonic was broken out of his thoughts by a shout from Tails, and saw the little fox running towards a light up ahead. Sonic dashed after him, soon realizing that Tails had found the exit to this cave. Sonic looked back once more at the beautiful cave, wondering if it had any other secrets they might have missed.

* * *

><p>Sonic looked out at the lowering sun, over this new landscape… If you could call it that. As far as the eye could see, there were massive metal platforms, sticking out of the "water" below. If you could call it that – It was really more akin to oil than anything else.<p>

Sonic knew exactly where they were – Everything he'd ever read about Westside Island always mentioned this place. Oil Ocean Zone, which used to be the single biggest exporter of crude oil in the entire world. Also, notably, the biggest importer of soap that was at the maximum potency deemed safe for skin contact.

… This seemed almost like the perfect place for Robotnik to set up his ending scheme.

"Why's the water all black, Sonic?" Tails asked, peering down at it. "… Can I swim in it?"

"No!" Sonic said, a bit harsher than he intended. "… Sorry, bro. But that stuff is super ick. Not so good for your health. Come on, let's go find Robotnik. No doubt he's ended up somewhere around here."

Sonic's suspicions seemed to be correct – There were plenty of robots for them to bash as they ran along the platforms. Once, Tails found a chute filled with oil, and Sonic had to tell him no, they were NOT going to slide down it. It was all the duo could do to carefully time their jumps and avoid falling into the oily mess below.

A few surprises came, such was when they were standing on top of a platform and it suddenly shot into the air. Tails loved it, but Sonic screamed. Fortunately, it did actually get them up to a high-up platform, which Sonic gladly took. The further away from that muck down there, the better.

Eventually, they did have to come down, but he expected that. And when they did, they found none other than Dr. Robotnik waiting for them, sitting in a submarine.

"Oh ho ho!" Robotnik laughed, as the hedgehog and fox came into sight. "I was wondering when you would show up! And you, fox? You took an arrow yesterday, and you're back and ready for more?"

"We're gonna kick your butt!" Tails exclaimed. "'Cuz you're evil!"

Robotnik chuckled. "We'll see about that, fox face." His submarine dived underoil, leaving Sonic and Tails alone above.

Tails was confused. "… Why's he say it like that? I like my face…"

"It's a nice face," Sonic agreed. "A lot of people would say you're pretty adorable. Now… How to beat Eggbutt this time…"

"Hit the window," Tails said. "Then he'll gotta stay up!"

"Good thinking, buddy," Sonic said. "How'd you figure that?"

"'Cuz of my submarine…" Tails seemed down. "… I miss my submarine…"

"Tell me later," Sonic said, as he saw Robotnik rise out of the oil. As soon as enough of it was visible, Sonic jumped down and smashed the glass, and Robotnik shielded himself from the oncoming projectiles. Noticing something unusual and aqua-colored on the dashboard, Sonic snatched it up and jumped back to Tails.

"Why you little…" Robotnik said. "You'll pay for this!" He pressed a button, but nothing happened. "What the… The Chaos Emerald laser…"

"Looking for this, Egghead?" Sonic asked, tossing the Cyan Chaos Emerald up and down. "Man, you've really gotta get better security for these things. What is this, the third one you've just lost to us? Add that to the three we've found, and I'd say your losing this battle!"

"Yeah!" Tails agreed. "We're beaten you!"

Robotnik groaned, rubbing his forehead. This wasn't going as well as he'd hoped… There was just one thing left to it, then. He grabbed the controls of his submarine, and zipped off through the muck. Sonic and Tails were after him, hot on the tail of the super-speedy submarine. He didn't need to stay ahead for long, though, and they were trapped on the platform as it was. The giant factory he'd claimed as his base loomed in the distance, and he zipped into the water entrance, forcing Sonic and Tails to use the main entrance that Oil Ocean's workers used to get in.

Robotnik had another plan for this place, though. All he needed was a bit more time, and it'd truly be complete…

* * *

><p>Sonic and Tails dashed through the factory, frequently letting the machinery carry them through.<p>

"I was wrong before," Sonic said. "THIS is where Robotnik's final plan is. Come on, Tails, we've got an Egg to crack."

"Yeah! Crack the Eggman wide open!"

"Eggman. Hah! Gotta remember that one."

There were a huge amount of robots here, all different kinds to hinder them as they went through the treacherous factory. This, more than anything, was a sure sign to Sonic that they really were getting close to the ending of this little adventure… Which meant Robotnik was probably saving the best for last. He wasn't sure if Tails should be with him for that…

"… Tails?" Sonic asked, as they waited for a lift to bring them up.

"What, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"… Are you sure you wanna fight him with me?"

"Yeah! You're my big brother! I wanna help, an' I can help!"

"… Just making sure, bro. But, if things get dangerous… Keep yourself safe, alright? Promise me that, bro."

"Okay! I promise, Sonic!" Tails said. Sonic could tell he meant it, without even trying… Tails really did look up to him, didn't he? At the same time, it was both flattering, and scared him a bit… But he couldn't place his finger on why. But, right now, it didn't matter. All that mattered was reaching Eggman. And Sonic was totally gonna call him that, too.

There weren't really any close calls, which surprised Sonic – He actually just felt exhilaration. He was, he guessed, "in the zone". He felt like he could do anything, and his movements reflected that – Everything was going without a hitch.

A small part of him realized that he'd missed fighting Robotnik, and that he really was ready for anything he had to throw at him.

An hour of dashing through later, and the three adversaries finally stood – Or sat in a hovercar, in Robotnik's case – at attention, staring each other down.

"So, here we are, Eggman!" Sonic yelled. "Ya ready for a super-sonic butt-kickin'?"

"Oh ho ho!" Robotnik laughed. "I believe it is you, old friend, who is going to have their butt kicked today. Get a load of this!" Metal spheres flew down from above, surrounding the Egg-O-Matic. "Can you get through this barrier?"

Sonic grinned, and he and Tails wasted no time in curling into Spin Jumps and slamming into the Egg-O-Matic from below. Two of the spheres detached, turning into odd… Eggman balloon things. Whatever, not their problem. Sonic had hardly touched the ground when he jumped up again and knocked away another one, Tails throwing one of his bombs to take out two more.

"Man, does this thing even attack?" Sonic asked, laughing. "Eggman, that's lame! Are you even trying to hurt us?"

"Robotnik! And shut up!" In reality, no, he wasn't trying to hurt them. He was trying to stall them for long enough that his work could be finished.

"Whatever you say, Eggman!" Sonic yelled, as he attacked once more. He bounced off of the little balloon that came out, landing on top of the Egg-O-Matic and bouncing off again. "Woo! Feelin' good!"

"Whee!" Tails laughed, as he imitated Sonic, bouncing off the little Eggman balloon he'd just released. "The baby Robotniks are bouncy!"

"That's the spirit, Tails!"

"Tails? Your name is TAILS?" Robotnik asked. "What a stupid name!" Tails glared at him, and jumped into his machine again, releasing the last sphere.

"S'not stupid! Sonic gave me it! An' he's awesome, an' my name's awesome!"

"And you're awesome too, bud. Now, how about we finish this up?" Sonic curled into a spin, aiming straight for Robotnik's flying machine. "Heads up, Eggman!" He yelled, as he slammed into it, knocking it far away into the depths of the fortress, and causing the final Chaos Emerald, the purple one, to clatter to the ground in front of him.

Sonic picked it up, a grin on his face. "Finally! Come on, bud, let's get back to the Tornado, and then, home, here we come."

"That was fun, Sonic!" Tails said happily.

"… I guess so. You really handled yourself out there," Sonic said proudly.

"Do you think he'll attack again?"

"Probably. But hopefully we've slowed him down for now."

Elsewhere in the factory, Robotnik smiled evilly to himself. Oh, he may have lost the Chaos Emeralds, but he could get those another day… What mattered was that his greatest creation yet was complete. Tomorrow… Everything would truly begin.

* * *

><p>Alseep at home, with Tails fallen asleep in his lap, Sonic had another dream.<p>

Something was wrong. He could feel it from the start, but the happy fox couple couldn't tell. They were sitting on a tree stump outside their home, talking to each other. Three months and he's already walking, Rosemary said to her husband. The man – Rosemary called him Amadeus, agreed. He was proud of their son, too. They kept talking about the little boy, and how smart he seemed. To Sonic, it was clear that they loved their son very much. But he couldn't shake his feeling of foreboding. The brown fox suddenly jumped to attention, alert. Hide Miles, something's wrong, he said to Rosemary. She ran into the house, leaving Amadeus outside all by himself.

But he wasn't alone for long – From the trees of the nearby forest emerged a creature nothing like Sonic had ever seen. He was a dull red color, and had spines, like a hedgehog, but he was clearly anything but. His spines were long and hung down his back, his muzzle pronounced and pointed. His dark blue eyes glinted with cold-hearted ambition. Amadeus tried to block the way to the house, but he didn't stand a chance. One punch from the creature, and he was down. If Sonic were awake, he'd have been sick… One look at the fox, and you could tell he wasn't getting back up for awhile.

The red creature moved into the house, quickly coming to Rosemary. She stood protectively in front of a bed, and the Cyan Chaos Emerald was on the opposite side. Seconds later, she met the same fate as her husband. The creature grabbed the Chaos Emerald, laughing quietly. Finally, it said. After four thousand years, one of the miracle gems belongs to the Knuckles clan. It grabbed Rosemary by the foot, effortlessly dragging her out of the room, never noticing the white tuft of fur sticking out from under the bed.

On its way out, it also grabbed Amadeus. Setting the Chaos Emerald down, it began to spin on the spot, one fox in each hand. Once it had gained enough speed, it let go, and the two unconscious foxes were thrown miles into the ocean. Even if they lived, they'd never be making it back here. Mission accomplished, no witnesses.

Sonic jumped up, breathing hard, accidentally knocking Tails to the floor. It was still the middle of the night, dawn probably five or six hours away.

"Ow!" Tails said. "Whazzat for, Sonic?"

"… Nothing, bud, go back to sleep. It was just a nightmare…" A very real-feeling nightmare that he knew would haunt him for a while. What did it all mean?

* * *

><p><em>Nearly as long as the last chapter. Wow. Next time is the final part of Sonic 2.<em>

_I had Sonic use the Blue Tornado with the Chaos Emeralds, yeah... He had to have something he could do, though. He really wasn't all that... Special in the classic games, not compared to Tails and Knuckles. So I gave him that._

_Finally, I get to stop saying "Robotnik"! ... Seriously, it was so hard to replace "Eggman" with "Robotnik" every other time I mentioned the man._

_A little reference to Hidden Palace Zone in the Mystic Cave section, because, well, why not?_

… _And the dreams reach the conclusion of their story. If you can figure out what's going on, good for you! Also, color me impressed if you guess correctly. I haven't revealed all the clues yet…_

_On characters who may show up, in case anyone's interested: Knuckles and Amy are definitely going to show up, both being of some importance to the plot. Other characters may show up, but nothing's absolutely definite._

_Watched Sonic Boom today. Loved it! Can't wait for more._


	4. A Super First

**Chapter 4: A Super First  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Thankfully, Sonic slept well enough the rest of the night. He dreamed only of Tails, piloting a little submarine around in the water and having a good time.<p>

When he awoke, it was still pretty dark outside. Tails was already up and about, drawing pictures in a notebook Sonic had given him. The little fox still hadn't let Sonic see what he drew, saying he'd show him when he finished a really good one.

Sonic almost said something to Tails about being up so early, but caught sight of the clock. It was already nine… So why wasn't any light coming in through the windows? A sense of foreboding filled Sonic, and he rushed outside to see that the sky was looking just as blue as it should. The problem was that there was an enormous shadow cast over the entire beach where he and Tails lived.

Sonic looked up, and yelped, causing Tails to run out and look with him. Flying above South Island, in plain view, was the largest structure Sonic had ever seen. It had to be a few miles long, shining with a brownish-yellow metal. Along the sides were painted the last thing he'd want to see on a monstrosity like this: The insignia of Dr. Robotnik. Robots were pouring out of the huge fortress, blanketing the skies further.

… He'd been stalling them back in that factory, Sonic realized. He just wanted to finish this… It was definite now. Though Sonic hadn't ever had a clear idea of what Robotnik wanted, he'd confirmed what he'd known all along: Whatever it was, it was bad, and he'd do anything to get his way.

"Holy freaking crud…"

"How'd he build somethin' so big?" Tails asked, looking at in wonder and a bit of fear.

"I don't know!" Sonic shouted. "Oh crud, crud, CRUD! How're we gonna… Wait! The Tornado! But the robots… Maybe if I… Tails, can you fly?"

Tails jumped a bit, taken aback by the outburst. "Uh… y… yeah, Sonic…"

"Okay, good. Good. We can make this work… Buddy, I know this is asking a lot of you, but…" Sonic hesitated. "I need you to fly the Tornado up to that thing, while I stand on the wings and take out the robots. Okay? It's a big job, but… I'm counting on you, bud. What do you say?"

Tails was stunned. He didn't say anything at first, but then grinned wider than Sonic had ever seen him. "Oh, thank you thank you thank you! I'm gonna fly the plane! Yay! I won't let you down, Sonic, or my name's not Miles Prower!"

… Oops. No, no this was bad, now Sonic was gonna laugh at him… No, no…

"… Miles Prower, huh?" Sonic asked. "… I see why you don't like it. But it's still better than Ogilvie Maurice Takeshi Parlouzer. Ready, bud?"

Tails smiled. Sonic didn't make fun of him! Yay! He should've known. "Ready!"

* * *

><p>After a few tries, Tails was able to figure out how the controls affected the plane. And once he did… Sonic had <em>never<em> seen anyone so at home in the sky. Even winged Mobians, who always made the best pilots because of their almost instinctual understanding of how flight worked, had _nothing_ on Tails. The little fox wove the plane between the turtle-bots Eggman had sent out with ease. Whenever there were too many, Sonic spun through them, and Tails was always there to catch him as he landed.

"Keed, I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again. You're amazing!"

"Nuh uh! You're amazin', Sonic!"

A few more minutes of dodging and bashing bots, and they were finally coming up on the gigantic fortress.

"Alright bud, bring us in for a-"

Sonic didn't finish his sentence, as lasers suddenly shot from the fortress, zapping straight into the engine of the Tornado. The resulting explosion flung Sonic onto the ship, shocked but otherwise unharmed, and Tails out into open air.

"TAILS!" Sonic yelled, as soon as he landed. The little fox was too far away for him to reach though. Sonic could only watch helplessly as his little buddy fell. He seemed so… Unconcerned about it. He pulled out his Chaos Emeralds and threw them to Sonic. The hedgehog caught them, but couldn't watch as Tails fell from a height that would mean instant death, even for Sonic himself.

Tails… No, Tails… He'd failed him… No… The first person Sonic had ever thought of as family was gone. And now… He wasn't going to let this stand. No way, no how! That is NOT what Sonic the Hedgehog does! With a sound like a whipcrack multiplied by a hundred, Sonic dashed across the airborne fortress.

Nothing stood in his way – Not the possibility of dropping a few miles down into the water around South Island, not the incredible amounts of robots, and certainly not the extremely dangerous giant rotor blades that kept the fortress aloft. Somehow.

The further he went, the stronger Sonic felt. He'd stop Robotnik here, for what he'd done to Tails… And what he was going to do to everyone else. He soon reached the front of the fortress, right above the cockpit. He didn't even bother looking for a way in – He jumped into the air, and spun downwards, as fast as he could. He drilled straight through the metal, landing in a room with Dr. Robotnik standing at the other end.

"Why, hello, Sonic!" Robotnik said, pressing a button on the ship's control panel and creating yellow forcefields blocking Sonic from getting close to him or going around the back. "I see you've fallen right into my little trap. Oh, and where's you little fox friend? Mmm… I guess when it came to die or fly, he didn't fly."

"SHUT UP!" Sonic yelled, running forward and kicking at the barrier futilely. "You… you…"

"My, at a loss for words, are you?" Robotnik laughed. "Too bad. I've got no time for you today, Sonic. My conquest awaits. Au revoir, hedgehog!" A hatch opened in the wall near Robotnik, revealing a little platform with a small rocket ship on it. "I do hope you and my little friend have a horrid time together." He walked away, leaving Sonic alone in the cockpit.

Suddenly, a laser blasted down from above to Sonic's position, and he barely got out of the way in time. He glanced up to see a short of light on the ceiling, moving around, following his own movements. It was just barely too high to reach, and it was only adding to his anger.

Not even realizing what he was doing, Sonic jumped at the wall, kicked off of it, and managed to gain enough height to kick the stupid laser thing and shatter its lens to pieces. Not satisfied, Sonic ran up the other wall, curling into a ball as he jumped off and slamming into the laser machine, breaking it neatly in two.

The barriers fell, and he dashed out after Eggman. The rocket was barely visible, flying far up into the atmosphere. Seeing it, Sonic's anger and sense of justice flared. If only he could get up there… If only…

_Chaos is power,_ the words suddenly came to Sonic. _Limitless energy… What happens with all seven?_ Sonic had a crazy idea, and the feeling that Tails had known what he was doing when he threw the Chaos Emeralds… Poor Tails…

Sonic closed his eyes, focusing on the energy he could feel pulsing from the seven emeralds he had, and how he wanted to save everyone from what had happened to Tails. It was easy, far easier than he'd ever expected. The energy flowed into Sonic, giving him a feeling of such power that he'd never had before. His quills stood up on end, going from their normal brilliant blue to a shining golden color. A glowing yellow aura surrounded him, and he felt lighter and more powerful than he ever had before. He opened his now-red eyes, and jumped off of the Wing Fortress.

He kept going – flying through the air, after Robotnik's rocket. He was far, far faster than he'd ever been able to run before, but he didn't have time to appreciate that. Robotnik managed to keep ahead of him anyway, and Sonic began to wonder where he was going – The sky was getting dark, and he was beginning to see stars, even though it was still morning.

It wasn't long before Sonic had his answer – What he'd thought was a passing asteroid turned out to be anything but. Robotnik was headed for a gigantic metal behemoth, which must have been at least thirty miles across. It wasn't a perfect sphere of metal, though – On it, in plain sight, was a structure greatly resembling a face.

Robotnik's face.

Right where the mouth would be, a hatch opened in the monstrosity, and the rocket flew in. Sonic wasted no time in following, dropping to the ground and returning to blue as he chased the vehicle through the base.

A door slammed down in between Sonic and the rocket, causing him to crash into it, and finally breaking him out of the track his mind had been on for several minutes now.

"Oh ho ho!" Eggman's voice sounded throughout the giant structure. "I'll admit, Sonic, I'm impressed. I didn't think you'd reach the base. You've caught me by surprise!"

Sonic glared, Robotnik's voice easily riling him up.

"But that doesn't mean I didn't make preparations. Just in case…" A hatch opened in the ceiling, and out dropped the biggest badnik Sonic had ever seen. And the most unique design – Instead of being based on a small creature, instead it looked like… Him. "Say hello to Silver Sonic, V1.0! This mechanical hedgehog is built to equal you in ability. You may be able to defeat me, Sonic, but can you beat yourself?"

The robotic double turned into a giant sawblade, spinning on the spot. Sonic dodged out of the way, catching it with a kick as soon as it uncurled from its ball. It seemed unfazed, though, simply activating rocket boosters on its feet and zipping towards the real hedgehog. Sonic prepared his own spindash, but was taken by surprise when the robot jumped at the last second and nearly crushed him. If he hadn't zipped forward in his spindash… He didn't want to think what would happen.

Sonic quickly uncurled and kicked off the wall, curling into a ball to slam into the fake hedgehog once again, bouncing off and uncurling to bring his foot into the other's eye. The fake punched him, far harder than he ever could himself, and sent him careening into the wall. Sonic kicked off again, curling into a ball above his robotic counterpart.

Suddenly, another idea came to Sonic. It didn't make the slightest bit of sense to him, but his instincts had been right so far… He slammed down onto the robotic hedgehog, crushing its head and bouncing straight back up into the air. He uncurled from his ball, and ran into the now open door, towards where Robotnik had fled.

He quickly came upon a huge room, holding nothing but a gigantic robot built like Dr. Robotnik. He glared at the thirty-foot likeness of his foe, anger in his eyes.

"Well, Sonic, I must say, I AM impressed. Clearly, you've got some tricks I didn't know. No matter, though, as I've still got one last trick up my sleeve. Prepare for the end, Sonic the Hedgehog!" One of the robot's arms shot out at Sonic, who dodged it and flung himself into the robot's body, damaging it quickly. This proved to be a mistake, as he was just grabbed by the robot's other arm. As he struggled to escape, Eggman laughed.

"Oh ho ho! After all that, it just takes one little slip-up in anger to stop you? If I'd known that, I would've done this sooner. Are you ready to join your friend, Sonic? I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, and I'll be happy to be rid of you."

"NO!" Sonic yelled. "No, no no! I won't let you win! I'm not letting ya hurt anyone else, Eggface!" The Chaos Emeralds came out, beginning to circle Sonic. His fur became a shining gold, his eyes red, and he broke out of the robot's grip with ease. He floated in front of Eggman, glaring at him.

"… Im… impossible…" Eggman said. "… Super Sonic… No matter! I'll still defeat you!" The robot jumped high into the air, to try and slam down on top of Sonic. Sonic flew into it midway, slamming into it with a Super-powered spin attack. Eggman tried to grab him with the robot's arms, but Sonic simply spun through the wrists of the robot, severing the hands and rendering them useless.

Next came the legs – He dashed into them, destroying them as well. One more attack to the main body of it, and it shut down, Eggman toppling out of the robot.

"I know you've got your own escape all planned out, don't you?" Sonic asked.

Eggman turned tail and ran to the doorway Sonic had entered through, which was enough answer for him.

"Then I'll just leave you here. But I'm warning you. DON'T try this again!" Sonic yelled, as he crashed straight through the window. He flew down, back towards home, tearing up as it finally hit him what had happened… Tails was…

Sonic's quills faded back to blue, and he felt himself begin to fall through the air, straight for the ocean below. He didn't panic, like he thought he would… He wasn't really thinking about much of anything really, apart from that little speck flying towards him that was just the color of Tails… Well, at least he'd get to see him again, right? It was kind of a bittersweet thought.

Sonic stared at the speck, thinking with each passing second that it looked more and more like Tails. Sonic realized with a start that there was a very good reason for that – The speck was his little fox friend, soaring through the air with no plane! His tails were spinning behind him, so fast that only Sonic's eyes could see it, somehow propelling him through the air at outstanding speeds.

"Tails?!" Sonic yelled. "You… You can FLY!?"

"Gotcha Sonic!" Tails said, as he grabbed onto Sonic's hand, "An' I tol' you that!" Tails began flying back towards the beach where they lived slowly.

"Tails, buddy! I'm so glad you're okay, keed!" Sonic said, giving the fox as good of a hug he could while dangling from his hand. "And… and… you… Flying! A flying fox! Now I've seen everything… Bud, I've said it before, and I'll say it again! You're amazing. You're the best little bro I could ask for."

"Thanks, Sonic!" Tails said happily, as they neared the ground. "An' you're the best big brother!"

Sonic hopped the few remaining feet to the ground, but Tails stayed in the air. "That means a lot, little bud. Now… How about a little celebration? Mint ice cream with lunch sound good?"

"Yay!" Tails said. "An' then… mebbe… We could race?"

Sonic laughed. "Oh, you bet! With that flying, I think I might actually have some competition! It'll be great!" He walked into the house, smiling at his little bro as Tails hovered after him.

And, for now, things really were great.

* * *

><p>Lunch was a simple affair – Sonic ordered pizza to celebrate, and then they shared Tails' favorite flavor of ice cream. Healthy, no, but after all that, Sonic was just glad he and Tails both made it through that ordeal.<p>

Then, came the races. For the first time ever, Sonic actually had the chance to go all-out in a race, without holding back, and still have a challenge. It was exhilarating. He still won eight times out of ten, but that someone had even managed to beat him once, let alone twice, was impressive.

Life went on. Soon, Tails had his own bed, and the dreams Sonic had been having stopped. He wasn't sure how to feel about that… On one hand, the story they'd told him was not a happy one. On the other hand… With the two foxes' son being named Miles, he had a suspicion that they were, in fact, the parents of his little buddy. He didn't tell Tails, though, because he thought knowing might upset Tails.

Tails finally showed him what he'd been working on in his notebook – Schematics for a new plane! As soon as Sonic saw them, he got to work helping Tails build it. A test flight would be in order as soon as it was done, and, frankly, he couldn't wait.

* * *

><p><em>Aaand… There! The Sonic 2 section is over. This chapter may be shorter, but, oh well. Sonic finds out Tails can fly, and more moves from future games (notably, the Bounce Attack) make an appearance.<em>

_And, of course, Super Sonic! Also, Sonic and Tails' real names._

_Next time comes Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Can't wait to write out the interactions between Sonic and Knuckles!_


	5. Something Else that Shouldn't Fly

**Chapter 5: Something Else that Shouldn't Fly**

* * *

><p>Tails' plane flew beautifully – Despite being identical in appearance to the original Tornado in every way but being painted blue as opposed to red, the plane was far more modern than the old one had been. Sonic was having the time of his life as they glided high above the ocean; having no fear because he knew his little buddy would always be there to catch him, one way or another, if things went awry.<p>

It had been two months since they'd started work on the plane, and they'd just finished a few days before. Then, yesterday, Tails had gone out for a bit of a flight, and spotted something "really cool" that he wanted to show Sonic. Sonic had agreed, of course, even if Tails' idea of cool was a bit different from his own. Eggman hadn't attacked since then, in fact, no word of him or his "Death Egg" had even been heard since Sonic used the Chaos Emeralds to take down his robot.

"So, how much longer, bud?" Sonic asked, as he lounged on the wing.

"I think we'll see it in jus' a minute, Sonic! Maybe… Yeah! Behind those clouds over there!"

Sonic looked to where Tails pointed, and gaped. There, just hanging in the air, was a _flying island_. And not a small, twenty-foot wide piece of floating land – This thing was as big as South Island!

"Whoa… Man, bro, when you said cool… Now that's just way past!" Sonic said. "Meetcha there, bud!" With that, Sonic transformed into his Super form, and flew off towards the island. With the enormous speed granted to him by his Super form, it took him only seconds to reach it. He charged straight into the jungle, dodging the trees coming at him at high speeds with ease – Until something whacked him in the face.

The emeralds scattered as Sonic was knocked onto his back. Something quite fast and red immediately snatched them up, and Sonic looked to see a creature, unlike any he'd ever seen before… At least while awake. This was the same sort of thing that, in his dreams, had come onto Tails' island and taken his parents from him. It was clearly a different creature, much younger than the one in his dream, with fur that was as red as a cherry instead of a duller color, and his eyes were a vibrant purple. Still, though, it appeared quite angry.

"Hey! Give those back!" Sonic yelled at the creature. Behind him, he heard the characteristic _thwapping_ sound of a little helicopter fox at work.

"They aren't yours, you vile little hedgehog! They belong to this island!" The creature yelled. Suddenly, faster than Sonic had ever seen anyone but Tails and himself move, the odd Mobian burrowed into the ground, taking all seven Chaos Emeralds with him.

"Who was he, Sonic?" Tails asked. "Why'd he take the Emeralds?"

"I don't know. But I'm thinkin' we're gonna find out. Let's speed, keed!"

"Alright!" Tails said happily, taking flight alongside Sonic as the latter dashed forward through the jungle. It didn't take long before it became clear that someone else that both were familiar with was on the island. Robots were infesting the jungle, a sure sign of Eggman's involvement. Sonic and Tails made quick work of them.

"Well," Sonic said, as they ran past the destroyed robots. "That answers one question. The red dude's working for Eggbelly… Maybe willingly, or maybe he tricked him."

"Wouldn't Eggman just put him in a robot or trap him or something?"

"Huh… Good point, bro. We'll just have to wait and see, then."

It didn't take them long before they came across a large, round robot. It didn't really seem to be doing that much, at first, at least until it unleashed a gigantic plume of flame from its top. Sonic reacted quickly, running rapid circles around Tails to keep the flames away. The fire was only in the air for a couple of seconds, but when it stopped, the entire forest had been set on fire.

"You okay, Tails?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah! I'm fine, Sonic… Reminds me of Poloy Forest, though…" Tails said, looking down at his feet sadly. "I hope the forest is gonna be okay…"

"Me too, bro," Sonic said. "… What was the point of doing that anyway? Doesn't matter right now. Come on, bro, let's turn this thing into a pile of scrap!" With a couple of Spin Jumps, the flamethrower bot was no more, and Sonic and Tails were dashing through the area once again.

Soon enough, they came to a switch just sitting in the middle of nowhere, right next to a small pond. "Okay, that's obviously a trap… But… huh… Tails, did you see any other paths around here?"

"Nuh-uh. There's just this huge hill. I don't think there's another way to go, big bro."

"Well, there's just one thing for it, then…" Sonic hopped up into the air, and prepared to Bounce Attack straight down onto the switch. Like a rubber ball, he bounced off of the switch, dodging any sort of trap that might spring. But the only thing that happened was the water draining, revealing a pathway underneath the hill.

"Huh…" Sonic said as he landed. "… Well, that works, too. I wonder why that switch was even here?"

"Maybe that red guy uses it! Or maybe there's other people here," Tails suggested, as he followed Sonic down the tunnel.

"Maybe… This place keeps getting weirder, though." The tunnel led to a nice, open field, which was quite a pleasing sight to Sonic and Tails. Sonic looked at his little fox friend and grinned at him. "You thinkin' what I'm thinkin', bud?"

"Yeah! Up, over…" Tails said, as he took the air.

"And GONE!" Sonic yelled, as the two sped up to full speed. A pair of cracks sounded as they sped past Mach 1, at a speed only they had ever been able to reach. It was short-lived, though, as they came to a bridge leading to a ledge in front of a waterfall, with a huge drop on either side.

As soon as they arrived, they were greeted by familiar laughter. Eggman burst out of the waterfall, accompanied by a new machine. "Oh ho ho! Why, if it isn't Sonic and Tails. I expected you to turn up sooner or later, to be quite honest. Now, for my latest creation: The Flame Mobile!" Eggman pressed a button on his console, sending a jet of flame straight for Sonic. Sonic, having none of this, simply attacked with a spin jump, Tails quick to follow.

"Hey! That's not very nice," Eggman said, as he flew his Egg-O-Matic behind the waterfall.

"Since when do you care about nice?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah!" Tails agreed. "You're always mean."

"I don't have the slightest clue what you're on about. It is you two who are always mean, destroying my robots I built for the good of humanity and mobianity!" Eggman said, as he came out from behind the waterfall to shoot at Sonic and Tails again.

"Who the heck do you think you're kidding, Egghead?" Sonic asked, as he jumped into the machine.

"Didn't you laugh about shooting an arrow at me?" Tails asked, as he sliced the bottom of the machine with his tails.

"I'm afraid you two are delusional. Now, I'm off. My new friend here would like to have a word with you." Eggman flew his machine away, behind the waterfall once more. Sonic and Tails tried to give chase, but there was a ledge in the way that was too high for Sonic to jump up to from the bridge on the other side of the platform. Standing atop it was the same red creature that had stolen the Chaos Emeralds.

"You'll rue the day you messed with Knuckles the Echidna," he said, chuckling at Sonic and Tails. "Who do you think you are, anyway? You have the gall to come up on my island, with the Chaos Emeralds my people were sworn to protect! And then you destroy this forest," Knuckles said, gesturing around. "Have you no respect for nature? Sonic the Hedgehog, my friend tells me you can't swim. Let's see how you enjoy Hydrocity, then."

Knuckles jumped on a switch that was next to him, causing the bridge to collapse and Sonic to fall in. Tails took flight and dived down after him, trying to catch him and carry him back up.

* * *

><p>Sonic was saved from his freaking out at the pool of water below by the familiar feeling of two little hands latching onto his own, and hung on as Tails lowered him down to a dry part at the side of the pool. Now that Sonic wasn't freaking out, he could actually look around this area, and – hopefully – come up with a plan. They had fallen into some sort of underground place, with nothing but the pool below and the waterfall coming into it. There were only two ways out: Up, or into the water. It should be pretty obvious which one Sonic wanted to choose.<p>

"Little buddy, you think you could fly us out of here?"

"Nuh-uh," Tails said. "I could fly out, but you're… umm… Flyin' up's real hard when carrying you."

"… Then… Could you swim down there and see if there's a tunnel?" Sonic REALLY didn't like the idea of swimming, but Tails was almost as at home in the water as he was in the air.

"Sure!" Tails dived down into the water, and resurfaced not a minute later. "There's a door down here, Sonic! It's got this switch next to it! I think it's the way out!"

"If you say so, bud!" Sonic jumped in, holding his breath. When he reached the bottom, Tails swam down next to him, and led him to a door that, indeed, did have one of those giant switches he kept seeing next to it. He pressed it, and the door opened. Suddenly, he felt a huge pull and he and Tails were pulled through the door into a short tunnel. They were flung out the other end, and landed, soaking wet, on a platform that stuck out of the water on the other side. Sonic stood up, coughing, and finally got to look around to see what this place was really like.

They were definitely somewhere inside the island – There were walls all around, but it was surprisingly well-lit. The entire landscape, if you could call it that, was dominated by water as far as the eye could see, with platforms here and there sticking out of it. Sonic went pale at the sight of so much water, but Tails was there to comfort him.

"I'm here, Sonic! Don't worry. An' it's not that deep, only like ten feet or so around here."

"That's still kind of deep, bud… Man, if only I could breathe underwater…"

"… Sonic?" Tails said. "… I've got an idea."

"Shoot,"

"Well, I've been readin' those books on eng… engermeen…"

"Engineering," Sonic supplied.

"Right! An' there was this stuff about 'surface tension', an' I was thinking… Maybe if you ran fast enough, you could… Um… run on water?"

"… That would be so incredibly epic. Alright, I'll give it a go, but only if you're right there with me, okay bud?"

"Always, Sonic!"

Sonic backed away to the edge of the platform opposite where he wanted to go, and got ready to run. He shot of, reaching his full speed before getting to the edge of the platform, and kept going, his eyes shut tight. When he realized he hadn't fallen in, he opened them and looked down to see that he was skimming the surface of the water, kicking up a huge spray and not falling in. Right next to him was Tails, doing his hovery-fly-run thing he did to keep up.

"This is awesome!" Sonic yelled. "Who knew we could do this?"

"Whee! I didn't know that would really work! This is great!" Tails agreed.

Running on water was a fair bit more taxing than running over land, however, and Sonic soon jumped up onto one of the platforms nearby, and continued running on that. The twists and turns of the sloped platforms here were actually very reminiscent of Chemical Plant, now that he thought of it – A lot of speed, even without having a wide open area to run. Like a rollercoaster, except WAY faster.

It wasn't long before the duo reached a sort of tunnel, thankfully not waterlogged, and went inside. They slowed down a bit in there, so as not to run into anything.

"Wow, what a rush," Sonic said. "But… Man! That was epic! Ha, running on water… Thanks for helping me figure that one out, bud."

"Heh… Welcome, Sonic. Uh… D'you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Sonic asked, straining to hear. Tails' ears were a lot bigger than his, so the little fox often heard things before Sonic did. He could hear a faint rumbling coming from behind them, but couldn't tell what it was… Only that it was getting louder. He chanced a look back, and was glad he did.

Zooming towards them at high speed down the tunnel was a wall, covered in spikes. If they didn't get a move on, it'd catch up to them pretty quick, and that would… Not be good.

"Gotta speed, or we're gonna be shishkabobs!" Sonic said, grabbing Tails' arm and zipping forward. Tails started spinning his tails behind him, which actually helped Sonic run even faster than he normally could – At that was saying something. But he didn't really care right now, all he wanted was to avoid the booby trap. With their combined speed, it was only a few seconds to get out of the tunnel, and reach another room, where a familiar red echidna was waiting for them.

"Running on water. Hmph, impressive. Didn't know you had it in ya," Knuckles said. He laughed. "Well, this is as far as you go. No way am I going to let you steal this island's secrets for your own evil purposes."

"Dude, Eggman's the evil one, not us," Sonic said. "Seriously, does Tails look evil to you? He's a four-year-old kid!"

"_Eggman_ is trying to fix the mistakes of his ancestors! And the only foxes you can trust died four thousand years ago."

_That_ made Sonic angry. For one, it was a stupid generalization. For another, this guy was talking about Tails, and he trusted Tails with his life. So, Sonic made a very stupid move – He spin-dashed straight for the annoying red creature, only to be met with a spin-dash in return. Tails caught him as he was sent flying, and Knuckles smirked.

Sonic jumped out towards Knuckles, intent on kicking him in the face, but was sent soaring far upwards by a punch, straight into a skylight.

"All speed, and no strength. Ha!"

"Don't hurt Sonic!" Tails yelled, running over to Knuckles with his hammer out. Knuckles burrowed into the ground at the last minute, dodging the attack. "Hey! No fair!"

"Life's not fair, _fox_." Knuckles said, as he emerged from the ground and grabbed Tails by his tails. "You and your 'Sonic' need to get off my island, and stop trying to force others to do what you want!" He began swinging Tails around, and tossed him up after Sonic, glaring at the little fox.

* * *

><p>Sonic came crashing down right on the side of a steep hill, and instinctively curled into a ball and began rolling down. It was surprisingly long before he finally rolled onto flat ground, and it took nearly thirty seconds for him to slow down enough to uncurl from his roll and see where he was.<p>

It was a beautiful, ruined city. He'd been rolling straight down one of the streets, which was covered in grass from all the disuse. Trees grew up between buildings, and in some places were so dense that Sonic couldn't tell the difference between forest and city. A soft thwapping sound behind him alerted him to Tails' presence.

"Look at this place, bro," Sonic said.

"It's like a huge city."

"I think it was, a really long time ago… I wonder who lived here… And how'd it get here?"

"Dunno."

"Come on bud, let's have a look around. Probably find Robotnik, too, sooner or later."

Sonic and Tails spent quite a bit of time walking through the city, looking for anything of interest. It was a quiet place, to be sure. There seemed to be an entire city built on a range of very steep hills, with platforms in between to lead between them. Some of the buildings were guarded by very obvious and painful looking booby-traps, specifically spiked balls swinging from poles, so Sonic and Tails avoided those places.

It didn't take long for Tails to find (and attack) some fruit trees. Sonic joined in, eating some fruit as well since he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, and it was getting to be late in the afternoon. After they had eaten their fill, and Tails had stored some fruit away in… Actually, Sonic wasn't sure where he kept all of his stuff.

Eventually, Sonic decided that it might be a good idea to rest for awhile, and they stopped in one of the larger buildings that wasn't booby-trapped. And, of course, when they entered, there was a mural. What immediately caught Sonic's eyes about this mural was that, right there, there was a painting of Dr. Eggman. Behind him, there was what looked like charred, broken-up pieces of land, with seven streaks of multicolored light shooting away from that, but the evil doctor wasn't paying attention to that – Instead, mural-Eggman was glaring at a hedgehog that looked shockingly like Sonic himself, who glared right back.

"Okay… Future-telling murals… Reminds me of that place on Westside… Why is it that this sort of thing always shows up in ancient ruins?" Sonic asked. "And they got me all wrong, anyway! I'm blue, not black, and what's with the highlights and sticky-up-quill thing?"

"… Sonic?" Tails asked. "Can we… uh… go, please? This picture's kinda givin' me the creeps…"

"Yeah, bud, let's get out of here… Maybe there's somewhere better to take a break up ahead."

Before Sonic and Tails could leave, though, the room started shaking and the ceiling began collapsing. Tails grabbed onto Sonic's hands, and flew him out of the way of falling pieces of stone, and out through a hole in the ceiling. Immediately upon clearing the roof, Sonic saw Dr. Eggman, sitting in his Egg-O-Matic customized to have drills all over it.

"Drats! I really thought I'd had you there. Well, no matter. Prepare for the end, Sonic and Tails!" Eggman flew at them, Tails quickly pulling Sonic out of the way. Sonic got a chance to look down below them, and was shocked to see that a good portion of the city was just collapsing, chunks of it falling into a chasm so deep, Sonic couldn't see the bottom.

"Stop making it hard to kill you!" Eggman yelled, as he swerved back around. He shot back, nearly grazing the hairs on Tails' head as the little fox swerved under him. "Oh ho ho! That was too close for comfort, wasn't it, fox boy?"

Sonic jumped out of Tails' hands and spun straight into Eggman's machine as they went under it, catching Tails' hands on the way back down. "What were you on about last time, Eggface? With the whole 'good of the people' bit?"

"That was just for the help's sake," Eggman said, as Tails dodged another attack from the drill and Sonic sent a strong kick to the machine's side.

"You're tricking him!" Tails said. "… You told him we were bad, didn't you? That's not nice!"

"Duh, you stupid fox! Eat drill!" Eggman pushed a button on his console, and one of the drills of the machine shot out at Tails. Tails quickly dropped below the drill, but came right back up since he had an idea. Just as the drill was about to hit him, he whacked it with his tails at what he thought was just the right angle and speed.

He turned out to be completely right. The drill was deflected straight back into Eggman's machine, hitting it point-first and causing it to begin sparking.

"Uh-oh…" Eggman slammed a button on his machine, causing the Egg-O-Matic to eject from its outer casing, just in time to as the drill machine exploded. Eggman flew off, yelling something about getting Sonic and Tails.

"Great move, bro," Sonic said. "Now… Where do we land?"

Half of the ancient city was completely gone, replaced by a hole straight through the island – Far, far below, Sonic could see the ocean shining through a blanket of clouds.

"Some… buildings… over there," Tails said, and Sonic saw that in the direction he was flying there were, indeed, some buildings, a fair distance away. He was sure he was seeing things, because why would there be a carnival on a floating island? …As long as there was land, though, it didn't matter. He just hoped his little buddy could carry him all the way there.

* * *

><p><em>Knuckles can be a bit of a jerk if he thinks you'll try and steal his Emerald and use its power for evil. Of course, Eggman's trying to trick him, so he acts as though Sonic and Tails are evil when Knux is around to hear… I'm glad to have Knuckles show up, either way. He is my third favorite character in the series, after Tails and Sonic.<em>

_And why is it that ancient ruin places seem to have these foreshadow-y pictures and carvings and whatnot in, like, everything? … Okay, there's actually a reason for it in this that I'll explain eventually, and a reason for the mural having that particular hedgehog in it._

_So, I've been watching some playthroughs of the Sonic Boom video games. Rise of Lyric looks… Unfinished, to say the least; while Shattered Crystal looks really fun but a bit too short (Only eight normal stages in the whole game). I'll probably still pick up the latter when I do, eventually, get a 3DS._


	6. A Safer Ride

**Chapter 6: A Safer Ride  
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* * *

><p>The sun was setting in the sky by the time they finally made it over to the safety of the buildings, which did actually seem to be a brightly-lit carnival. Sonic jumped out of Tails' hands as soon as the little fox was over a safe area, and Tails dropped to the ground, immediately falling asleep from his exhaustion.<p>

"… Thanks, buddy," Sonic said, patting his little fox friend on the head, and lying down next to him. He didn't fall asleep, though, just waited through the next few hours, thinking about everything that had been going on. True, it wasn't like him, but ever since Tails showed up, things had gotten weirder.

Eventually, around the middle of the night, Tails woke up, and was ready to go – Though he was pretty obviously still tired, so they walked at first, rather than ran. Carrying someone twice as heavy as you for over an hour was no easy feat, after all, even if it had been several hours. As they walked, something struck Sonic as very odd about the carnival, but he couldn't place quite what… It was brightly lit, for sure, and there were balloons everywhere, along with a few things that might qualify as somewhat lame rides… It was a question from Tails that made Sonic realize what was really weird about this place.

"Where's all the people, Sonic?"

"… I don't know," Sonic admitted. Come to think of it, had they even seen _anyone_ besides Knuckles and Robotnik since they arrived here? Sonic couldn't remember anyone at all… To be fair, they'd covered, at most, about a fifth of the island, but this place actually looked like it'd have people here. "… Maybe… Tails, I think maybe that red guy's the only one who lives here. Have you seen anyone else?"

"Um… No, not really… What d'you think happened to the rest?"

"No clue, buddy… This place gets weirder and weirder…"

Sonic and Tails kept going through the carnival, once stopping to eat some of the fruit Tails had saved. Tails actually started feeling a lot less tired after that, and he and Sonic took off through the carnival, tearing through it at high speed, though Tails still wasn't up to doing more than hovering. Moving quickly, it became clear that this wasn't a real carnival – All the "lame rides" were just obstacles in a huge, and fast, obstacle course. Some of the technology was impressively advanced, such as some odd black things that Tails found extremely cool and told Sonic they were anti-gravity.

Sonic didn't see exactly how anti-gravity was even possible… Then again, they were on a flying island, and his best friend was a flying fox. He decided not to question it too much.

Sonic and Tails screeched to a halt as they passed a familiar figure on a ledge above them. Knuckles the Echidna stood up there, glaring at the duo. His hand rested on a switch, ready to press it.

"I can't believe you two!" Knuckles yelled. "You punched a hole in my island! Well, let's see how you like THIS!" He flipped the switch, and the lights shut off. Laughing, Knuckles jumped onto a wall, and climbed it using the sharp spikes on his fists.

"... Was that supposed to do something?" Sonic asked. Tails didn't have an answer, so they just ran after where they thought Knuckles had gone off to, Tails still being too tired to fly more than a few feet off the ground.

The light of the moons and stars was more than enough to see by – It wasn't any harder to navigate and dash through this odd carnival than before. It seemed like turning off the lights had no purpose at all, but Sonic couldn't shake the feeling that something must be up.

"Maybe he's gotta charge up some other electric thing," Tails suggested. "An' it can't really be easy to power stuff way up here."

"… Let's hope he's just a total meathead and that's NOT what's going on, then." After all, who would trust Robotnik?

Sonic was, of course, completely wrong. They soon came across a building that actually had a light shining in it, and entered to find a yellow-and-green checkered floor in an otherwise barren room.

"Try this, hedgehog!" Knuckles' voice yelled out. Sonic looked up to see the echidna latched to a wall, next to another switch. "A little security feature I had installed, just to deal with nasty Emerald-nappers like you!" He flipped the switch, and, suddenly, the floor began to drop downwards. Quickly, Sonic did a Bounce Attack off the floor to try and reach Knuckles, but to no avail as the echidna was already climbing up and away.

Tails yelped, as he dodged out of the way of the robot that had just dropped down next to him. It was an odd, cylindrical thing, with a sharp, spinning spike attatched to the bottom. It had just broken open a piece of the floor, created a hole into a huge drop, with no floor below in sight. The spike released, and Tails tried to jump over it, but instead landed on the flat base of the spike. He held on as it ricocheted around the room, trying to figure out what to do.

Sonic, meanwhile, slammed into the robot, but did almost no damage to it despite the speed he was moving at. He saw the spike coming towards him with Tails atop it, and jumped out of the way as it took out another section of the floor. Sonic spin-dashed at the cylindrical robot, but that didn't do anything either.

It did, however, give Tails an idea. He began spinning his tails around, using all his strength to direct the spike where he wanted it to go. With a bit of effort, he managed to aim it straight into the robot itself, carving a hole through it and taking it out of commission for good.

He jumped to the ground, getting a high-five from Sonic immediately. "Nice thinkin', bud. That wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be."

"Heh, thanks, Sonic…"

The falling floor slowed to a halt next to a door leading to a room with nothing but an old-looking cannon in it. Seeing this, Sonic had an idea that he wasn't sure Tails would've thought of. "Hey, bud, I've got an idea." Sonic jumped into the cannon, and it shot him through the air at high speeds, with him screaming "Woooooo!" in joy as he was flung through the air.

Tails, thinking it looked fun, repeated exactly what Sonic had done.

* * *

><p>Sonic soared through the air, absolutely loving the feeling of the wind in his quills with nothing holding him up! … Now that he thought it, it was actually probably a pretty stupid idea. But he couldn't stay mad at this view. He was falling straight towards a snowy mountain, so the landing would probably be soft… Or really painful, but Sonic was counting on the former. A yellow ball of fur soared past him, easily overtaking him and soaring higher than he himself could. He'd just glide down safely past the mountain, or something like that.<p>

The feeling of flight didn't last all that long, though. Soon enough, he was falling straight towards the slope of the mountain, and it seemed like he was going to crash right into a… Why was there a snowboard sticking out of the snow? Sonic kicked the snowboard up as he landed, expertly flipping himself in the air to land perfectly on top of it and begin boarding down the mountain.

"Woo!" Sonic yelled, leaning forward to gain even more speed. "This is awesome!" The snowboard ride was over in thirty seconds, coming to an end as Sonic slammed into the wall of a crevasse at two hundred fifty miles per hour and knocked down a huge amount of snow. He didn't care, though, laughing all the way as he dug out of the self-created snowdrift at the bottom of the crevasse, his snowboard lost. Just as he freed himself from the last bit of snow, Tails glided down next to him.

"Ready for a bit of spelunking in an ice cave, li'l bro?"

"Splunking?" Tails asked, as he followed Sonic into the cave entrance within the crevasse they were in.

"Oh, it just means cave exploring. We did some back on Westside too, remember?"

"Oh yeah!"

There didn't seem to be many badniks around, though that was probably a good thing with all the ice spikes and huge blocks of solid ice that were everywhere. It was, suffice to say, extremely cold – Colder than any winter Sonic had ever experienced, and they tended to get pretty brutal on South Island. Thankfully running kept him warm, while Tails' thick fur did the same for him.

Tails was fascinated by all the ice and snow – something he'd never seen before, having never lived in a place where winter was actually cold enough for snow to form. He kept asking Sonic how it worked, and Sonic was sorry he didn't really have an answer for the fox. Tails didn't mind, and just went onto trying to figure it out himself – Something Sonic encouraged him fully on.

The thing that really left an impression on both of them, however, was the sheer beauty of the place. The caverns within the mountains were absolutely huge, but very little of it was actually a walkable path – The vast majority of it was populated by crystals of ice, far bigger than Sonic had ever imagined were possible. The ice glittered, filtering in light from far above.

Eventually, the two came across a slope leading further down into the cave, with a block of very hard ice with a flat top in front of it. Sonic had an idea, and pushed the block forward a bit before jumping on and pulling Tails with him.

"Hang on, Tails," Sonic said, grinning at the fox. "We're about to go sledding! Trust me on this, it'll be fun."

Tails smiled back, trusting Sonic's words without question. The block of ice slid onto the slope, and quickly began picking up speed, zooming further and further down the ramp, with no end in sight. Suddenly, up ahead, it could be seen that the ramp made a sudden turn upwards.

Their makeshift sled flew over the ramp, flinging itself and them high into the air, straight out of the ice cave and into the icy landscape above. Sonic jumped off as it reached the apex of its jump, landing gracefully in the snow fifty feet below. Tails flew down after him, landing next to him and grinning widely.

"That was so cool, Sonic! We were all like, zoomy-slidey-whee, an' we didn't even have to run!"

"I know, bud. That's what's so fun about it. C'mon, though, running time now."

The surface of the icy area was no less breathtaking than down below, especially in the just rising sun. The light glittered across icy mountains in the distance, and made the snow stand out brightly. After very little time running, Sonic and Tails came across a huge lake, with icebergs floating all around in it. Tails wasted no time in just jumping from one to the next, while Sonic decided to take the safer (in his opinion), if colder, method of just running across the water and avoiding the icebergs as best he could.

It didn't take Sonic and Tails long to notice something that stuck out like a sore thumb. Hovering above one of the larger icebergs was something round, metallic, and housing Sonic's least favorite human being on the face of the planet.

Sonic and Tails both jumped onto the iceberg at the same time to face Eggman. "Why is it that you're always around to ruin stuff, doc?" Sonic asked. "I mean, it's like, what, every other place we go, you're here and trying to take us out."

"You're a threat to my plans, as you well know," Eggman said, glaring at the hedgehog.

"Well your plans are bad!" Tails said to Eggman. "Why d'you wanna do all this stuff, anyways?"

"Does it matter, fox brat? Can we just get on with this, I've got a schedule to keep."

"Gladly," Sonic said, jumping at the Egg-O-Matic. Eggman swiftly piloted it out of the way, and used his newest attachment to the device to send a jet of freezing gas at Sonic. Sonic saw it coming, and rolled under it in time, jumping up as soon as it dissipated to deliver a powerful kick to the bottom of the Egg-O-Matic.

While Eggman was reeling from the attack, Tails swooped in and whacked the hovercar with his hammer. Eggman was having none of that, though, and shot another jet of cold out at Tails. He was able to avoid it, and whacked the machine with his hammer again before landing on the ground next to Sonic.

"That all ya got, Egghead?" Sonic taunted, wagging his finger at the rotund man. Eggman fumed, and slammed his hand down on the button to send another jet of freezing cold air at Sonic and Tails. Sonic had absolutely no trouble dodging out of the way in time, and continued to taunt Eggman. "Ha, too slow! You'll never get us. Isn't that right, Tails?"

Tails said nothing.

"… Tails?" Sonic asked, looking over to where he'd been standing not a few seconds before. Right there, frozen solid into a block of ice, was the little yellow fox Sonic had come to love as a little brother, standing with a look of fear on his face.

"Tails!"

"What's the matter, Sonic? He giving you the cold shoulder?" Eggman laughed. "I must say, that's some chilly reception! Too bad for him. I don't imagine being frozen can be very good for him, now can it?"

"Don't hurt my brother!" Sonic shouted. He turned on the spot to face Eggman, fury in his eyes, and jumped up. He got a feeling, once more, of what he needed to do, even if it didn't seem like it could possibly work. Sonic curled into a ball, spinning faster than even when spin-dashing, and shot off towards Eggman, an aura of blue light surrounding him.

If Eggman was surprised by the attack, he didn't show it. He simply piloted the Egg-O-Matic out of the way, causing Sonic to shoot past him. Or, that was the plan. As soon as the Egg-O-Matic moved, Sonic changed directions and slammed straight into it anyway, with far greater force than his normal spin jump attack.

Eggman quickly recovered, trying to pilot the Egg-O-Matic around Sonic before the hedgehog could react, but to no avail. Sonic simply repeated his new attack, over and over. No matter how erratically Eggman flew the Egg-O-Matic, Sonic would always strike it dead on, homing in on the device more accurately than any sort of homing missile ever could.

In under thirty seconds, Eggman was forced to retreat, leaving Sonic to break Tails out of his icy prison.

"You okay, buddy?" Sonic asked, holding onto Tails as he got him out.

Tails shivered. "Y-yeah s-s-Sonic… M'o-o-kay… c-c-cold…"

"Hey, you'll be fine," Sonic said, letting go of the little fox for a moment. Tails immediately fell over, unable to balance. Sonic helped him back up. "Okay… Um… How about I walk for both of us, for now, okay?"

"K-kay…" Tails said, and Sonic picked him up in his arms before dashing off after Robotnik.

* * *

><p>The freezing waters soon gave way to warmer waters, and a huge structure loomed on the horizon. It took Sonic a little while to figure out exactly what he was looking at, but when he did, his blood ran cold… Though not in the very literal way Tails' was right now.<p>

Ahead of Sonic was a huge mechanized base, clearly showing Dr. Eggman's design schemes. The reason for it being so huge, though, was easily apparent from where he stood. Sticking out of the top, proudly, like some twisted sculpture, was the Death Egg. Somehow, in the two months since Sonic trashed it, Robotnik had managed to repair it, and was planning to launch it.

At least one good thing could be said about this place, though: It was nice and warm, fortunately for Tails.

Sonic jumped onto solid ground as soon as he could, carrying Tails with him as he ran through the base. There were more badniks here than in any other part of the island, but to Sonic's relief he found that he could still do that new attack while holding onto Tails without disturbing the little fox.

Sonic was quickly able to find a door into the base itself, and gladly took it. Alarms immediately sounded, and badniks began to pour into the room. Sonic sighed in exasperation, and just zipped past them. Tails half-heartedly tried to throw a bomb at the robots, but missed by a good ten feet… Which was more than a little worrying since, in Sonic's experience, Tails had perfect aim.

It was very clear that Eggman knew they were here, what with the attacking robots every twenty feet or so. Still, Sonic pressed on, using the machinery to his advantage (though he did have to wonder about the purpose of ten foot thick rotating screws… Still, they definitely helped get around) to avoid all the robots.

It didn't take long before they were outside again, and Knuckles the Echidna was waiting for them. Sonic groaned, at set Tails down beside him, safely away from the crazy red anteater. Tails wobbled a bit and continued shivering, but at least he didn't collapse this time.

"I'm really not in the mood, Knucklehead," Sonic said, getting into a fighting stance. "Look, I don't know what Eggman told you, but it's a lie! He's trying to take over the world!"

"And what makes you think I'd ever believe you?" Knuckles yelled. "He told me the same of you, and, frankly, I've only known you since yesterday!"

"Really? And what's that?" Sonic yelled back, pointing at the Death Egg resting in the lake. "Doesn't it seem just a little odd that a 'hero' would have a mile-wide orbiting battleship?"

"Shut up! I know who to believe!" Knuckles yelled, leaping towards Sonic with his fist outstretched. He never got the chance to react the hedgehog, though, as the entire base suddenly started shaking, flinging him off course and over the edge of the platform they stood on. Tails tripped over himself, but was otherwise unhurt, and Sonic made a split-second decision.

Sonic ran over to Knuckles, grabbing the echidna's hand and pulling him back up just in time to see the Death Egg rising out of the water. Knuckles seemed shocked that Sonic had helped him, and said nothing as he stared at the spectacle of the giant metal sphere rising out of the water.

"Oh ho ho ho!" Dr. Robotnik's voice rang out over a loudspeaker as the Death Egg's bottom cleared the water. "Finally, everything's ready! I thank you for your help, Knuckles, but your contributions are… No longer needed, nor appreciated. I'm honestly surprised that the Guardian was duped so easily as you were! And now it's too late. The Death Egg is fully operational once more, and I'll be taking my leave now. And your Emerald, for good measure!"

The Death Egg flew off. Sonic ran over to Tails and helped him stand back up, before picking him up in his arms and beginning to dash after Eggman. He was stopped by Knuckles grabbing onto his arm, though.

"What is it, Knucklehead?" Sonic asked irritably.

"I'm coming with you. And that's final," Knuckles growled. "Eggman is going to pay!"

"Well, that's nice, but we don't really have time for that!" Sonic yelled, just as a loud explosion was heard from the Death Egg and it began descending over another part of the island. "… Or… Never mind…"

Tails shivered, and tried to hug his namesakes to himself to get warm.

"… Hey, what's wrong with the kid?" Knuckles asked.

"Oh, now you're concerned about him!" Sonic yelled. "What happened to the whole 'can't trust foxes' thing, huh?"

"Okay, I was wrong! About a lot of stuff! Look, do you want my help, or not?" Knuckles growled. "And I'm pretty darn sure you need it! Now, what's wrong with the kid?"

"C-c'n talk," Tails said. "M-m' really c-c-cold…"

"Eggman froze him when we were in that icy place," Sonic explained.

"What?" Knuckles shouted. "He did… But foxes can't…" Suddenly, Knuckles whipped out a thermometer from nowhere, and used it to take Tails' temperature. "Ninety-eight… A lot better than it could be for being frozen solid, but still way too cold for a fox. We've got to get him somewhere warmer, and I know just the place. Follow me." Knuckles ran off, Sonic following closely behind with Tails in his arms.

* * *

><p>… <em>I'm really not sure about how Carnival Night turned out, to be honest… I felt like it could be better while writing it, but wasn't sure how to do it. On the other hand, I'm actually pretty pleased with Ice Cap. And Launch Base… I felt it was about time Knuckles came around, don't you agree? He's not a bad person… Simply stubborn and gullible.<em>

_If you're wondering about the title, think back on the song _We Can_ - "And Knuckles by our side, makes this **a safer ride**."_

_I actually did a bit of research on what the average body temperature for a fox is – it's 102F._

_So, next time, Mushroom Hill, Flying Battery, Sandopolis, and some real Team Sonic action!_


	7. Speed, Flight, Power

**Chapter 7: Speed, Flight, Power**

* * *

><p>Knuckles led Sonic into a deep, warm forest, filled with mushrooms that were easily five feet tall and wide. Once they were in a clearing, Knuckles sat down, his back to one of the mushrooms, and Sonic followed his lead.<p>

"This is where I usually sleep," Knuckles said. "Nice and warm, whether day or night. Now, while we're waiting for the kid to warm up-"

"Tails," Sonic said. "Call him Tails."

"Tails, then," Knuckles said. "While we're waiting for him to warm up, tell me about the emerald-poaching ball of lard."

"Ball of… Hah, that's a good one," Sonic said, laughing. Knuckles didn't seem to find it all that funny, and just stared at Sonic until he stopped. "… Anyway. Eggman, or Dr. Robotnik, that's his real name… For a while now, I think about a year, he's been trying to get his hands on the Chaos Emeralds and… Something about taking over the world, I think. That big metal thing you saw is the Death Egg. It's some huge base that's supposed to go into orbit around the planet. I trashed it about two months back."

"That's when it crash-landed in that lake," Knuckles confirmed. "I went to investigate, and Eggman told me a load of lies about himself. He said he was a simple scientist trying to make up for something one of his ancestors did four thousand years ago, and learn more about the Chaos Emeralds for the better of mankind. He said the Death Egg was a research laboratory, and that you felt the need to bully everyone because of your abilities, and that you already ruled several cities, but that he was your favorite target."

"That's stupid," Tails said, for once not shivering nearly as much. "Sonic's the nicest person I've ever met!"

"Thanks, bud," Sonic said, ruffling Tails' head and grinning. "… So what did this ancestor of his do?"

"Heck, I'm not sure he was telling the truth about the whole 'ancestor' thing… It's a story, about something that happened a long time ago. It goes that, long ago, there was a human with a moustache and shaped like an egg who appeared out of nowhere, along with a black hedgehog and a young echidna, who had the long nose of my tribe but claimed to have never met another echidna. The hedgehog and the echidna were able to drive the man away, but not before he made an example of what he'd do to anyone who defied him…" Knuckles grew quiet.

"So that's what that mural was about! When Eggman destroyed that city, we saw this painting in one of the buildings," Sonic explained. "… What happened?"

"… The same day he was driven away, just hours before, even, the evil man destroyed an island… One that was home to an entire sub-species of mobians."

"… What?" Tails asked. "… How could someone do that?"

"I don't know," Knuckles said. "No one really knows how he did it, either. Those foxes were one of the few peoples my tribe trusted, too… All the others were different from them, from what I've heard. But, I think you're alright. Sorry for, you know, trying to get rid of you guys." Knuckles finished, rather lamely. He knew it wasn't much of an apology, but he was definitely going to be making up for what he did.

Tails smiled. "Thanks! Are you my friend, too?"

"… Let's not go that far. Once this is over and done with, you two are going to go back to wherever you came from, and take the doctor with you. And I'll just be up here, alone, like I've always been."

Sonic stood up. "Maybe you'll change your mind. Anyway, Tails, feelin' better yet?"

"Yeah!" Tails said, jumping up and taking flight. "Way better!"

Knuckles stood up, as well. "Good. Then we're going to either find that… I don't even know what to call him right now, or get to the Hidden Palace before he does."

"Hidden Palace?" Sonic asked, as he and Tails chased after Knuckles and easily caught up to the echidna.

"Hiding place of the Master Emerald. It's powerful, it's my duty to guard it, and that's ALL you need to know about it."

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles ran through the forest for a time, with nothing happening much. Tails seemed to really enjoy bouncing on the mushrooms, and Sonic even joined in a few times, but Knuckles refused to join in, saying that he had a 'duty'. Sonic noticed that he made no effort to _stop_ him and Tails from messing around, just stood there watching until they were done. He thought he caught a smile on Knuckles' face once, but then the echidna just scowled when he noticed Sonic looking at him.

"How d'we get there?" Tails asked Knuckles at one point, when the hedgehog and fox weren't busy with the mushrooms.

"There's a long secret passage hidden under Sandopolis, which is the desert up ahead," Knuckles explained. "You might be able to just barely see it through the trees. Hopefully we'll just be able to cut Eggman off before he gets to the Emerald."

"Hey, you're talkin' to us," Sonic said, smirking at Knuckles. "We're faster than the speed of sound! Don't worry, we'll get this Mister Emerl-"

"MASTER EMERALD."

"Yeah, whatever, we'll get it back faster than you can say 'Up, over, and gone!'"

* * *

><p>A few miles down, the desert began abruptly. It was a huge, sandy place, with heat radiating off the ground. There were structures everywhere, almost like the ruins found in Shamar, but much different. In the distance, a few pyramids could be seen, and the sky seemed to have taken on a strange orange tint the moment they crossed the border between the mushroom forest and the desert.<p>

"How does that work?" Tails asked, as they ran through the desert. "There's a forest an' a desert next to each other… Percip… precipipatient… raining doesn't jus' stop on a line."

"Magic," Knuckles didn't explain.

"… Sonic, is magic real?" Tails asked.

"I don't know, bud. But I bet you could figure it out after all this.

"Yes," Knuckles said bluntly, as he broke apart a rock that got in his way. "It's real. You'll see. Sonic you're about to fall in quicksand."

Sonic yelped, jumping over the quicksand pit he'd nearly run into. Knuckles jumped after, having slightly more difficulty getting over, and Tails didn't even bother touching the ground.

"A little warning next time, Knux."

"Don't call me that. And there's almost nothing but quicksand pits, sand slides, rocks, ancient tombs, and grappling ropes to avoid death by quicksand pit here."

"Grappling ropes? Why would you need them?"

"Believe it or not, Sonic, my ability to climb any surface is uncommon for my species. Just as Tails flies and you run unreasonably, impossibly fast. And I think you'll be thankful for them, as the secret passage I spoke of? It's in a giant pyramid hidden in a quicksand pit, guarded by an ancient golem and more quicksand pits."

"… Is there a reason your home is so dangerous?"

"To keep out intruders. Past generations of my family were far less keen on them than I am."

"… Didn't you try to get rid of us like three or four times?" Tails asked, as they came to a huge gap with a pit of quicksand and the bottom.

"Yes. I still stand by what I said." Knuckles looked at Sonic, a huge and somewhat disturbing grin on his face. "Grapple rope time!"

Ten seconds later, Sonic was hanging onto a little metal bar on a rope, swinging back and forth over an enormous chasm with quicksand at the bottom. Tails was hovering right there with him, to catch him if he fell, but that didn't make the idea of slamming into the wall of the chasm – which was required to use the stupid rope – any more appealing. And he didn't want to risk having Tails try and fly someone else yet, even if he did seem to be feeling well enough to fly himself.

Knuckles decided to reveal that he had yet another ability he hadn't shared with Sonic and Tails, because _why the heck not_? He just spread his arms and legs out, and used his long, thin spines to catch the air and just glide down.

"You can fly?" Sonic yelled as soon as he was off the rope. "Couldn't you have carried me?"

"Glide, not fly. Yes. But you're here, so there's no point now. Let's go." Knuckles ran off and punched through the wall of a tomb, not even caring about the damage he was causing.

"Hold up, didn't you yell at us when Robotnik collapsed that city?" Sonic asked. "… Why don't you care about this place?"

"It's literally just protection for the Emerald," Knuckles said, as he climbed up a wall, Tails carrying Sonic up after him. "All of these – they're just traps, to lure in curious archaeologists."

"… How'd they get here, though?" Tails asked. "The island's way high up!"

"It wasn't always flying," Knuckles said. "I'm not sure what happened, but something made it start flying a long time ago."

"Weird," Tails said, as they came across another quicksand pit which Knuckles just glided across again, causing Sonic to complain about him not waiting for him… And then thinking how absolutely weird it was for HIM to ask someone else to wait. Tails actually ended up carrying Sonic across this one, and while it was a bit less smooth than normal, he managed to get him down well enough.

This quicksand pit was absolutely huge, with a pyramid sticking straight out of the middle, and a small expanse of ground in front of the closed door. In front of said pyramid was a strange-looking boulder.

"We're here," Knuckles said, walking towards the boulder. "Through this pyramid, there's a hidden passage through a volcano and into Hidden Palace. It's by far the fastest way there, even if it's dangerous. Come on, the guardian should let me through."

The boulder suddenly jumped up, turning into a large rock golem and slamming down towards Knuckles. If Sonic and Tails hadn't reacted as quickly as he did, Knuckles would've been flattened like a pancake.

"Crud," Knuckles said, disentangling himself from the two speedsters. "Wonderful. Eggface messed with it."

"Of course he did. And how do we beat it?"

"We don't!" Knuckles yelled, as the three dodged out of the way of another jumping attack by the golem. "It's indestructible. The only way would be to lure it into the quicksand, but we'd fall in ourselves."

"… I could do it," Tails suggested. Before Sonic or Knuckles had a chance to object that, no, Tails should NOT be in any fights right now, Tails flew in front of the golem and waved at it, before quickly zipping to the other side and hovering slowly away from it.

Astoundingly, it took the bait. It jumped after Tails, who always kept in the air just a bit ahead of it. Soon, Tails was hovering over the quicksand, pulling faces at the golem to try and distract it from Sonic and Knuckles. It worked, too – The golem probably would have roared if it could, and jumped straight into the quicksand pit, not even coming close to touching the flying fox.

"… Of course. Flying fox," Knuckles said. "… I don't think I'll ever get used to that. But, hey, good job, kid." Knuckles punched through the door of the pyramid, and led Sonic and Tails inside.

The inside of the pyramid was, in short, dark and rather spooky. Tails did not enjoy being inside it, and, admittedly, neither did Sonic or Knuckles.

"W-w-what if there's ghosts?" Tails asked, hovering really close behind Sonic as he walked.

"Don't worry, bud, there's no such thing as ghosts," Sonic said.

"Oh, ghosts are real," Knuckles said. "But there's nothing to worry about. Nope, nothing at all… The ghosts that haunted this place have been sealed up for a long time… They're never getting out."

"What if we accidentally let 'em out?" Tails asked nervously. "What'd they do?"

"… I'm not even sure," Knuckles admitted. "But don't worry, it won't happen. Really. It won't." Neither Sonic nor Tails noticed that Knuckles seemed a bit nervous, and had sped up his pace a little. The trio walked through the pyramid for a long time, Knuckles expertly leading the way through the darkened passages, albeit nervously.

Knuckles was, admittedly, afraid of ghosts. He didn't know why, but something about ghosts just bothered him to no end. And he didn't want Sonic and Tails to find out… Even if they were working together, and the kid was pretty much nothing but nice and friendly, he still had his pride. And guardians weren't supposed to be afraid of anything. That wouldn't do, not at all.

The thought crossed Knuckles' mind that who exactly were Sonic and Tails? He didn't really know much about them – They were fast, and they fought Robotnik. That was it. He was especially curious because he kept getting this weird feeling from being around the two, which almost felt like the Chaos Emeralds, but… Different. Not nearly as powerful, either.

Knuckles shook his head. Now wasn't the time to be wondering about his companions. Now was the time to be getting them through here, so that they could help save the Master Emerald. He led them into the room he'd been dreading entering, but was glad to find the ancient metal capsule that housed the spirits he was so afraid of. It had always surprised him how it looked like it belonged in the present, despite being easily four thousand years old. If it did its job, it was fine.

Suddenly, a flash of blue zipped past the side of Knuckles' vision, and jumped right on top of the capsule, destroying its walls an unleashing the spirits inside. Sonic did a backflip off the capsule, and gave a thumbs up to Knuckles. Knuckles stared at him, horrified.

"… What… DID YOU JUST DO?!"

"Let the creatures out of the capsule. Don't you know that's what Eggman uses those for?" Sonic asked.

"S… Sonic…" Tails said, looking at the ghosts pouring out of the thing as Knuckles fumed.

"Yeah, bud?"

"G-g-g-g…"

"YOU JUST LET THE GHOSTS OUT, YOU BLUE IDIOT!" Knuckles yelled, just as one of the ghosts slammed into Sonic from behind. Knuckles caught Sonic, and high-tailed it out of there, blue hedgehog dragging at his side. Tails flew behind him, afraid to be alone with the ghosts.

"Ow – hey – Knux, let me run myself!"

"NO! Only I know the way, and you're just… Gah! You're just you! You are so… Do you ever THINK?"

"Hey, it's the exact same thing Egghead uses! How was I supposed to know?"

"Gee, I dunno!" Knuckles yelled. "USE THE PILE OF MUSH YOU CALL A BRAIN! OR, BETTER YET, ASK ME!"

"Please stop fighting, Tails said, yelping as a ghost flew through him to slam Knuckles into the ground.

Sonic grabbed Knuckles and blasted off, well past the speed of sound, with Tails close behind. It certainly was not the safest speed to travel at in a building, and they slammed into the wall at the end of the hallway. Sonic bounced back from the wall, landing on his butt, while Knuckles made a more lasting impression on the wall. Tails slammed into the wall, and fell onto Sonic's head, groaning. Knuckles pried himself out of the wall and noted their position, glad that they were still on-track and away from the ghosts. He turned to check on Sonic and Tails. Sonic was just fine, saying that he was used to crashes like that. Tails seemed dazed and had some bruises, though those seemed to be fading quickly.

"Right, I lead this time. Carry the kid," Knuckles said, leading Sonic and Tails towards the entrance to the volcanic passage that they'd have to take before entering the Hidden Palace. Hopefully, they wouldn't meet those ghosts again before they reached the exit.

… And he thought too soon. Just fifty feet from the "safety" of the Lava Reef, a ghost appeared in front of him, and he jumped back. Sonic immediately used his Homing Attack on the ghost, causing it to disappear. Knuckles reacted quickly, punching another ghost that had just appeared next to it into oblivion. Tails tried to join in, leaping at a third ghost in a Spin Jump. He yelped as he phased straight through the ghost, and rolled along the ground until coming to a stop right at the entrance to the Lava Reef.

The ghosts acted as though Tails didn't even exist, and tried to attack Sonic and Knuckles again. One Homing Attack and punch later, and Sonic and Knuckles were dashing to Tails, dragging him into the doorway. The ghosts tried to follow, but stopped as soon as they came into the light of the doorway, unable to stay out of the dark.

* * *

><p>"Okay, okay, that's over… No more ghosts… no more idiot Sonic… No, wait, that's not gonna change is it?" Knuckles asked, glaring at the hedgehog. "Who knows what those ghosts would've done, huh?"<p>

"I don't care to find out," Sonic said. "We really should just go. Now, what's this place?"

"Lava Reef," Knuckles said. "It's a volcanic passage that connects the pyramid in Sandopolis to the bottom of the Hidden Palace. Full of deadly lava, but still better than ghosts."

"Lava hurts," Tails said. "… But ghosts are scary."

"… Yeah," Knuckles said. "Uh… That. Let's go." To be completely honest, Tails' tone worried Knuckles. He said lava hurt, but didn't seem to be particularly worried about it. Sonic just didn't seem to care, and was already hopping over a lava pit. Knuckles glided across, while Tails just hovered after them.

Sonic and Knuckles made their way through the winding passage cautiously. Lacking Tails' ability to just fly over everything, they had to be quite a bit more careful about the (very frequent) lava pits. Usually, Sonic went across first, jumping from one sinking rock to the next with incredible agility and speed. Knuckles would glide after him, and Tails would follow behind in flight.

"Again, your home is really dangerous," Sonic said. "Anything else we should know about this place?"

"Not really," Knuckles said, as he punched a new tunnel through some loose rock. "Just don't get too close to the lava, because you'll get burned. There's not really traps here, because it's so incredibly dangerous that no one in their right mind would come in here."

"… Yeah, I've actually seen an active volcano turned into a tourist attraction. Knux –"

"Don't call me that."

"– There really are people that crazy," Sonic said, as he zipped up the side of the tunnel and ran on the ceiling to avoid a particularly wide patch of lava.

"Hope the lava doesn't start chasing us," Tails said. "… That happened t'me once. It was scary!"

"… Wait, _what_?" Knuckles asked. "What the heck were you doing in a volcano?"

"Lookin' for Chaos Emeralds!" Tails said. "So the Kukkus couldn't get 'em."

"Oh, right," Sonic said. "Before we met, Tails' island, which I'm pretty sure didn't float, was attacked by some bird armada thing, and he stopped them with the Chaos Emeralds. He didn't tell me about the volcano, though."

"Sorry, Sonic! But the Kukkus were mean! Not like Flickies. They're nice."

"... Well, Tails, this volcano's not going to erupt," Knuckles said. "It's because… Um…"

"The pressure can't build up 'nuff for the boom cuz' we're on a floating island?" Tails asked.

"… Yeah, that," Knuckles said, as the trio crossed another lava pit. "We should actually be reaching the cooler part of the passage, soon. Then it's just an easy straightaway to the Hidden Palace."

"Alright!" Sonic said. "A chance to run for real!"

The tunnel turned up, and Knuckles began climbing the wall. Tails offered to fly Sonic up, but he declined, because he wanted to try something. He began running in place as Tails flew after Knuckles, hoping that he really knew what he was doing. With a crack, Sonic dashed onto the slope leading up the wall, and began running straight up it at supersonic speed. He flew past Tails and Knuckles, and onto a huge expanse of dark, speckled rock, with little shiny flecks hidden inside it.

Knuckles grumbled, but took off after Sonic. Tails ran alongside Knuckles, for once not flying around yet still easily keeping up with the echidna eight years his elder.

"Does he always leave you behind?" Knuckles asked.

"No," Tails said. "I can keep up with him. But I think he's tired of movin' so slow."

"Wish I was fast," Knuckles said. "Then – wham! Anyone tries to steal my emerald, and I bash them at super-speed."

"Have y'ever tried?" Tails asked. "I didn't know I could fly as fast as Sonic 'till I met him, cuz I never needed t'fly fast."

"That doesn't seem like it'll work," Knuckles said, as they caught up to Sonic, who had stopped to stare in awe at something through a little tunnel at the end of the granite field. Tails stopped next to Sonic, staring at the sheer beauty of the Hidden Palace.

"That was my reaction when my father showed me this, too," Knuckles said, as his companions took in the beautiful mosaics that were unlike anything they'd ever seen, and the way light seemed to shimmer, even though there was no real way for it to enter the cave. "... But there's no time to waste," Knuckles said, taking the lead in front of Sonic and Tails. "We're going to stop Eggman before he even starts. Let's go."

"Heh, with you all the way," Sonic said, breaking the spell upon him and Tails. "You know, you're not half bad."

"We could really be friends," Tails said, as he followed the other two into the palace.

"Maybe," Knuckles said. "But for now… Anyone who tries to steal my emerald will get a knuckle sandwich instead."

* * *

><p><em>Okay, I lied. Not purposefully, mind you, but I ended up skipping flying battery because I didn't feel I could really write it. I tried, and got through about four or five paragraphs before it started feeling like it really was not working. So I took it out and skipped straight to Sandopolis.<em>

_Eggman's not in this chapter at all. But, of course, he'll feature prominently in the next chapter – Along with a certain robot we all know and possibly love. Team Sonic will get to see what they're made of._

_Knuckles revealed some backstory for this story. As for how that comes to play… You'll just have to wait and see. Some of it is important for next chapter, which is one that I hope REALLY gets you guys thinking. Some of it is important for even further on, of course._

_Also, to try and figure things out: Pay attention to the details. I like hiding things there. If you have any theories, PM them to me because I'm curious. Don't put them in a review, because if you're right it's spoilers. And it's always nice to talk to people who read your stuff._


	8. What I'm Made Of

**Chapter 8: What I'm Made Of**

* * *

><p>Knuckles led Sonic and Tails through the beautiful Hidden Palace, and began to explain about it. "This is the hiding place of the Master Emerald, and all the knowledge of it and the Chaos Emeralds," he said, as he jumped up some steps. "Everything the echidnas know about the Emeralds and their domain is hidden somewhere here." He led them into a room, with a mural on the wall depicting what was clearly Eggman, fighting against a hedgehog shape, and a green emerald in the middle.<p>

"How many of these things are there?" Sonic asked. "Seriously, this is the third one I've seen."

"I have no idea," Knuckles admitted. "But this… Was part of the reason I trusted Eggman. I believed him to be the good figure in the image, and you to be the bad, not the other way around. Come on, the Emerald's just ahead." He ran forward to the next room, Sonic and Tails close behind.

In the next room was a shrine, the centerpiece being nothing less than what appeared to be an absolutely enormous Chaos Emerald. Easily five feet wide and three feet tall, the green gem glowed and glittered. All three in the room could feel the waves its power made, even from fifteen feet away.

"… Whoa," Sonic said.

"… Feels weird," Tails added.

Knuckles let out a sigh. "Good. We got here before-"

"Miss me?" Eggman's voice yelled, as he zipped through on his Egg-O-Matic, grabbing the Emerald with a claw extending from the bottom. "Oh ho ho! So, you three are a team now? Well then, maybe you have a chance. Or not. I really don't care. I'm off!" Eggman drove his Egg-O-Matic straight through the ceiling, leaving Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles there.

Knuckles was the first to react. "Follow me!" He yelled, pulling Sonic and Tails over to a strange machine, consisting of a red orb surrounded by an odd white coil. He pressed a few buttons on the side, and jumped to the top, pulling Sonic and Tails with him.

A flash of light, and Hidden Palace disappeared from sight.

* * *

><p>Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles emerged on a yellowish platform, covered, somehow, in green grass, floating high in the air.<p>

"What the- How did that just happen?" Sonic asked.

"Teleporter," Knuckles explained. "They're powered by the Master Emerald, using Chaos Energy to warp time and space. There was just enough power left to get us up here. It's the only way we're going to catch _that_." Knuckles pointed at the Death Egg, which was rising from below, quite a feat with his boxing gloves.

"Um… If th'emerald's in there… What's happening to the island?" Tails asked.

"… Look down."

Sonic and Tails looked down over the ledge, and saw something that neither wanted to see.

Angel Island, far below, was plunging out of the sky.

"… Your home…" Tails said.

"It'll be fine," Knuckles said, "As soon as we get the Master Emerald back. But there's really no time to waste now! Come on!" He ran off as fast as he dared, over a walkway to another platform. Sonic and Tails followed, seeing for the first time where they really were.

As they ran, they could see that they were in nothing more or less than an ancient, floating city, even higher above the ground than Angel Island. And, like Angel Island, it was falling – Piece by piece, the beautiful marvel was crumbling to the ground, as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles dashed up it.

"Knux, I don't think you're gonna make it up there!" Sonic said, as he ran beside the echidna. "This place is falling too fast. Maybe just me and Tails should –"

"NO!" Knuckles snapped. "This is MY duty! MY home! And it's too late to turn back now, anyway!" Sonic looked behind to see that the platform they'd teleported onto had, indeed, collapsed, and the path they were on was collapsing too, quickly catching up to them.

"Then run faster," Sonic said. "Or you're gonna fall."

"I don't think I can!"

"Dude," Sonic said. "Just try. If not… I could drag you, which wouldn't be fun, but it's better than falling into the ocean, right?"

"I can glide, Sonic," Knuckles said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, guys…" Tails said, taking flight. "Um… We really need to speed up."

"Now or never, Knux," Sonic said.

Knuckles took a deep breath, and tried to get his legs to move faster, somehow. He'd never exactly been a slow runner, but now, more than ever, he needed to move fast. If not, then… He didn't want to leave this to Sonic and Tails. The Master Emerald was HIS duty. And they were… His friends. Whatever Robotnik had in store, they'd handle it better together.

Knuckles pushed his arms back, leaning forward in an attempt to make himself a bit more aerodynamic. Surprising himself, he took off, faster than he'd ever run before. Sonic and Tails could still easily keep up with him, but they weren't in danger of the collapsing of Sky Sanctuary catching up to them.

Sonic flashed a thumbs-up to Knuckles. "Knew you could do it, Knucklehead!"

"Stop it with the names!" Knuckles growled, as they climbed ever higher.

"Hey, it's all in good fun," Sonic said. "Nicknames, that's kind of my thing. And seriously, good job, Knuckles. I'm proud of you."

"Don't need it," Knuckles said, though he still appreciated it. There was just something about these two that made him like them. "But, uh, thanks for helping out, anyway."

"Heh, we'll always help someone in need! Isn't that right Tails?"

"Yep!" Tails agreed. "S'no problem too big, no problem too small!"

In spite of his own pride, Knuckles smiled. Yes, there was definitely something to be admired in two people who would help people just for the sake of helping people.

Maybe it was around time he stopped hanging around his island so much, and started using his own abilities to help others… As long as he found a way to keep the Emerald safe, that would work…

Soon, they reached the top of Sky Sanctuary, but it was too late – the Death Egg was already too high to reach. Tails could've flown it if it were going slower, but it was leaving faster than he could fly up.

"NO!" Knuckles yelled, punching one of the nearby pillars and causing it to collapse to the ocean ten miles down. "There's gotta be some way to–" Suddenly, sensing a huge mass of power coming towards him, Knuckles jumped out of the way. Right where he was standing was a bluish-silver robot, shaped like a hedgehog but far taller than Sonic himself.

"Not this again," Sonic said, groaning. He and Tails both went into spin-dashes, but Knuckles grabbed them before they could shoot off. "Hey, what was that for?"

Knuckles simply let go of Tails to point at Mecha Sonic, who was being surrounded by the seven Chaos Emeralds.

"Oh, heck no, you gave them to Eggman?"

"Look, I'm sorry!" Knuckles yelled, looking away from the robot.

"Uh… It turned gold, guys…" Tails said nervously. Sonic and Knuckles both looked and stared to see that the blue robot had indeed turned gold, and had begun glowing. The robot curled into a sawblade, and shot straight at the trio. The three were barely able to dodge the attack in time, and in a second it was coming at them again. Tails jumped in front of Sonic and Knuckles, swiping his tails in front of him to try and intercept it. Amazingly, it simply ricocheted off the thirty-inch-long fuzzy appendages, which didn't even hurt.

"Wow!" Sonic exclaimed. "Bud, I knew your tails were getting stronger, but… _man_, Tails... You're amazin', ya know that?"

"It's not invulnerable!" Knuckles exclaimed, just as the robot swept by them again. "It's fast, though. I've got a plan," Knuckles' statement was followed by another dodge from the trio as the robot attempted to crush them underfoot, "Remember what happened when you came here?"

"You punched me in the face!"

"And knocked the Chaos Emeralds out of you," Knuckles said, as he blocked the robot with a punch. "I was using the power of the Master to do that."

"How's that help now?" Tails asked, as he blocked the robot, who seemed to be even more determined to end them now, with his tails again. "Eggman took it."

"Right! But Sonic… Only someone with Chaos Energy IN them can use the Emeralds," Knuckles explained, as the three dodged another speedy attack from Super Mecha Sonic. "All three of us have used them before! If we all attack together, we might be able to get the Chaos Emeralds out, and use them to chase down Eggman."

"Right!" Sonic said, as he Homing Attacked the robot to knock it away from Knuckles. "So we just hit it?"

"With the intention of getting the Emeralds away," Knuckles explained.

"Chaos reacts to emotion," Tails said, jumping out of the way of Super Mecha Sonic. "So y'gotta want it, or it won't work!"

"Got it!" Sonic said. He spun into a ball, and began rolling in circles around the golden robot. A tornado began to form, and Tails jumped in after Sonic, using his tails to catch the wind and ride along with Sonic's speed. Knuckles was confused by the tactic, but it seemed to have stopped Mecha Sonic in its tracks, so he followed suit by gliding in. Faster and faster the three spun, before Sonic yelled out that he was going to break the tornado, and to attack as soon as he did.

A second later, Sonic jumped out of his spin, and used his Homing Attack on the robot. At the same moment, Tails flew into the robot tails-first, and Knuckles delivered a nasty punch. For just a moment, the robot flashed back to blue, but then it went back to shining a slightly less brilliant gold. Sonic landed on the ground, blue Chaos Emerald in hand. He quickly put it away into his quills, and dodged another of Super Mecha Sonic's attacks.

"One down, six to go!" Sonic yelled. "Any ideas?"

"… Maybe?" Tails said, as he blocked another attack with his tails. "Uh… Curl up, like a spin-dash, an'… Hope this works…"

Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other, unsure, but did as Tails said anyway. As if they were soccer balls, Tails kicked at his two friends. They became shrouded in an aura of electricity, somehow, and began to home in on Mecha. Tails quickly curled into a spindash himself, and shot at Mecha. Once again, the robot flashed blue, and Tails caught the Yellow Chaos Emerald as it fell from the robot.

"A'right!" Tails exclaimed, dodging out of the way of yet another spin attack by a suitably enraged Mecha Sonic. Knuckles was right behind Tails, and reached out to catch the deadly, near-invulnerable golden sawblade. With a mighty heave, Knuckles threw it away.

"Jump and curl up! Now!" Knuckles yelled. Sonic and Tails did so, and Knuckles jumped up in time to spike them both like volleyballs towards Super Mecha Sonic, who had just uncurled. While it was reeling from Sonic and Tails hitting it, Knuckles punched the air as hard as he could right in front of the robot. Why he didn't contact it, he wasn't sure, but it seemed the right thing to do. An explosion went off in midair just in front of his hand, knocking the Red Chaos Emerald away from the robot and allowing Knuckles to catch it.

"Alright!" Knuckles yelled. "He's only got four left, and we've got one each. I think we might actually be able to attack him individually now."

"Don't mind if I do!" Sonic said, doing a somersault and sliding into the robot's feet, sweeping them out from under it and nabbing the Green Emerald in the process. Now, Mecha Sonic was looking far less golden than before.

Before it could recover, Tails started spinning on the spot, whipping his tails around as fast as he could. He was getting a little dizzy from it, but thankfully the attack didn't need to last long – As soon as the living fox tornado slammed into the robot, the Cyan Emerald fell from its grasp into Tails'.

Knuckles stood his ground, focusing as hard as he could on the Emerald to try and use its power. It was different from the Master Emerald, for sure, but that didn't mean he couldn't use it. A glow surrounded him, and he jumped forward, arms outstretched. Spinning like a drill, fire trailing behind his fists, Knuckles slammed into the robot, grabbing the Purple Emerald for himself.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stood before the robot, which was now sparking, and very nearly completely blue again.

"Let's finish this!" Sonic said, curling into a spin-dash. The same as Knuckles, he focused on the Emeralds' power, drawing it into himself. He began to glow with a blue aura, and shot off at a speed far, far faster than he had ever attained before. He couldn't even tell what was going on, but it ended with him standing in front of a dismantled robot, the White Chaos Emerald ripe for the pickings.

From Tails' and Knuckles' perspective, all that had happened was Sonic charging a spin-dash, and then a blur of blue flashing all around the robot, hitting it about fifty times in a second in the same number of different places. The robot, even with a Chaos Emerald, hadn't stood a chance.

Sonic picked up the White Emerald, and brought out the Blue and Green ones from his quills. Tails brought out the Yellow and Cyan ones from wherever he keeps things, and Knuckles brought out the Red and Purple ones from his own quills.

"You guys ready for this?" Sonic asked. "It's a bit of a rush…"

"Super Transformation?" Knuckles asked. "Are you kidding? Of course I want to do this!"

"I wanna try, too!" Tails said. "It was so cool when you flew like that!"

"Alright, here we go!" Sonic said. The Emeralds began levitating and spinning around the trio. Sonic's eyes turned red, his fur becoming a shimmering gold as his quills turned up, instead of hanging down, a golden aura surrounding the hedgehog. Knuckles went from cherry red to an incredibly bright purplish-fuchsia color, his eye color brightening to the same shade as a similarly-colored aura surrounded him. Tails' appearance remained unchanged, but he gained a red cape.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles looked at each other, and nodded to one another before taking off into the sky, just as the final pieces of Sky Sanctuary collapsed to the ocean below.

* * *

><p>Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles tore through the hull of the Death Egg without even slowing down. It was a different part of the giant facility than Sonic had entered last time, and, for the first time, he realized just how absolutely huge it really was. Last time, he'd entered through the intended entrance, instead of simply breaking in through a wall, and so he hadn't seen this.<p>

The entire interior of the death egg was an enormous, cavernous maze of walkways. Here and there, there were square structures that must have been rooms, and there were robots patrolling everywhere. The Death Egg was so impossibly huge on the inside that the opposite wall couldn't even be seen.

"Whoa," Knuckles said, taking in the sight as they flew through the Death Egg. "This is… I've never seen anything like this!"

"It's so big!" Tails exclaimed. "It must've taken months to just design! I dunno how long it took t'build, but… Wow!"

"… It is amazing," Sonic admitted. "I can't believe I never even saw this part last time."

"How did you even miss this?" the pink glowing echidna asked. "It's so amazing… All the more reason we have to take it down."

"… It's too bad Eggman doesn't do good stuff," Tails said sadly, as robots tried to attack them but didn't manage to do any damage at all as they flew onward. "He's a really good inventor."

"Yeah, I getcha," Sonic said, kicking a robot. "Do we even know where he's waiting?"

"No clue, but the top's a good bet," Knuckles said.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles continued flying up, easily dispatching anything that came their way.

"Man, I was right about this!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Super is _awesome_!"

"Yeah, too bad you're pink."

"Hey, shut up. It's still awesome."

It was several minutes before they managed to fly to the top of the Death Egg, and the three slammed into the ceiling, punching a hole through with ease, no worse for wear themselves.

Atop the Death Egg, there was nothing in sight but stars, and Mobius waiting far, far below them. The two moons shone, but Dr. Eggman was nowhere to be seen.

"Crud," Knuckles said. "I was wrong… He's not here… The view is amazing, though."

"OH HO HO HO!" Eggman's laugh suddenly rang out. A giant hatch opened right near where Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were floating, revealing an absolutely enormous robotic double of Dr. Eggman, easily three times the size of the one Sonic had fought only a few months previously. "Surprise! For you, that is. You see, I had a feeling that Super Mecha Sonic might fail, and Sonic would just chase after me again. And I'm ready for your Super powers this time!"

The robot swept both of its hands towards the trio at super-speed, smashing them between. Eggman wasn't stupid, though, and hardly reacted as Super Knuckles punched the hands apart, freeing himself, Sonic, and Tails. Sonic flew forward, curling into a ball and smashing straight into the Eggman Mech's nose, damaging it.

"Give it up, Eggman!" Sonic yelled. "You'll never win!"

"Yeah!" Tails agreed, as he whacked one of the robot's arms with his tails. "Sonic'll always beat you!"

"Or me," Knuckles said, punching the robot in the face. "I'm not going to forgive you for that trick! Do you really think you can take on all of us?"

Eggman made no response for a minute or so before he began laughing "Oh ho ho! This fight isn't over. In fact, it's hardly beginning! Get a load of this!"

The mouth of the robot opened, revealing the Master Emerald inside. Knuckles flew forward to try and pry it out, not noticing it beginning to glow. He was hit full-on with the laser blast that came out of it, and was knocked to the ground. Still in his Super state, he floating back up to try again, and dodged the laser this time but only caught the robot with a punch to the nose. Sonic and Tails flew over to try and help, but the robot simply swatted all three away.

"That actually hurt!" Knuckles said. "Be careful of that, because I think it might actually be able to knock us out of our Super forms. And if that happens…" Knuckles shuddered.

"Well, we'll just have to be faster then!" Sonic said, dropping to the ground and going into a spin-dash. Once again, light began glowing around him and he shot off at amazing speed, crashing into various parts of the robot faster than the untrained eye could possibly see.

He flew back to Knuckles and Tails, leaving a dented – but not defeated – Eggman mech in his wake.

"Impressive tactic, pincushion!" Eggman yelled. "But not enough!" He fired his laser again, Sonic and Knuckles dodging out of the way but Tails not reacting in time.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled. The laser ended, Tails dropping down but quickly catching himself and flying back up to Sonic.

"M'okay, Sonic!" Tails said. "Hurts, but lava hurts way worse!"

"Wait, WHAT?" Knuckles asked, as the trio dodged another laser. "Never mind! We've got a mission!" Knuckles zoomed forward, punching the robot in the face with all his might. An explosion ensued, knocking it backwards and blowing off its nose.

"Why you… You'll pay for that!" Eggman yelled, shooting the laser again. This time, it lasted several seconds, following the team around. They were able to stay ahead of it, but it did, at one point, manage to hit Tails from behind.

The cape had stopped it, though, which gave Tails an idea. Pulling the red cape in front of him, Tails flew into the laser, using his cape as a shield. It worked – The laser was diverted by the cape, and Tails was able to fly in and under the Master Emerald into the belly of the beast itself.

The laser ended, and only Sonic and Knuckles remained in view. Eggman laughed. "Oh ho ho! My, Sonic, it seems your little friend couldn't handle-"

CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR

"Wait, what?"

A cut appeared on the belly of the robot, followed by two more as Tails used his tails, aided by the Chaos Emeralds, to slice his way through the metal. He flew out, as the robot began exploding behind him.

"Way to go, Tails!" Sonic said, giving the little fox a high five.

"What'd you do?" Knuckles asked.

"I messed with th'wires," Tails said. "I took out the resisty-things an' reconnected the stuff, an' it overloaded!"

"PLAN C!" Eggman yelled, as his Egg-O-Matic flew out of the flaming wreckage, the Master Emerald carried in the same claw he'd used to steal it from the hidden palace. "Catch me if you can, suckers!"

Sonic grinned at Tails and Knuckles, who returned them before blasting off after Dr. Eggman. The hedgehog, fox, and echidna quickly caught up, delivering a triple spin attack that knocked the Master Emerald out of the Egg-O-Matic's grip, sending the hovercar flying.

"Man!" Sonic laughed. "If that was plan C, plan D must be even dumber!"

"Betcha it's hidin' it in a cake or somethin'," Tails said.

"… Well, thanks for saving my Emerald", Knuckles said, hoisting it onto his back and rising in the air. "It was actually kind of fun, working with you two."

"Thanks!" Sonic said, flashing a thumbs up.

"… Yeah!" Tails said, jumping up and down. "We did it!" He stopped, suddenly, ears swiveling around. "… Uh… Guys, I hear somethin' behind us."

Sonic looked back to see the giant Eggman mech beginning to glow brightly, electric charges flying all over it. "Oh, crud! Gotta juice, bruce!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles took off, putting as much distance between them and the robot as possible.

A huge explosion went off behind them, completely obliterating half of the Death Egg and turning the other half into a shower of shooting stars.

"… Seriously, Sonic?" Knuckles asked, as they floated in space. "What the heck is that supposed to-"

"PLAN D!" An Eggman-shaped robot, in fact a repaired version of the one Sonic had fought a few months before, swept by and grabbed the Master Emerald straight out of Knuckles' grip. "Yoink! Ha ha! Did you fools really think that was it? Catch me if you can, for realsies this time!" The robot blasted off, as fast as Sonic could run.

Sonic only grinned at Tails and Knuckles once again. "Well, I think I know what we need to do now. Ready?"

"Make the big Eggman go poom? Yeah! Always ready!"

"Anything to get the Emerald back," Knuckles said.

"Then here we go!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles flew forward as the Eggman mech grew further and further away from Mobius, and they began to enter the rings around the planet. From there, they had to quickly dodge asteroids, or they'd be slowed down significantly (as Tails had noticed), though thankfully they didn't hurt, unlike the Master Emerald laser.

Despite their speed, they couldn't catch up to Eggman's robot, and, as they grew further and further away from the planet, Knuckles grew more worried. He'd have to figure out how to end this NOW. As he dodged another ring particle, the idea suddenly came to him. Instead of dodging the next rock, he grabbed onto it with both arms and flung it forward, using all his momentum and strength to see it crash into the robot and slow it down for a few seconds. It wasn't enough to destroy it, not by a long shot, but it did help close the distance between them.

"Guys!" Knuckles yelled. "We gotta hit it with the rocks, quick! Who knows how long they'll last."

"Not much longer!" Tails said, whacking a rock into the robot with a swipe of his tails "Th'rings only go a couple hundred miles!"

"Well then, let's make it count!" Sonic yelled, as he slammed into a rock with his Homing Attack and sent it crashing into the robot. This one managed to slow it down enough to bring it within ten feet of the heroes, close enough for them to attack, if Sonic's spur-of-the-moment plan he'd just come up with worked.

"I'm not giving up yet!" Eggman yelled, as he tried to push his machine to go even faster. With the rocks, though, there was no way to get away from them without crashing into one.

"Alright, I've got an idea!" Sonic yelled. "Knuckles, remember that chargy-drill thing you did, back with Mecha Sonic? You think you can do that again?"

"I think so, Sonic!"

"And Tails, you know how you did that electric-thingy?"

"I dunno how it works, Sonic," Tails said. "… Sorry."

"… I mean, do you think you could do it again, but on yourself?"

"Oh! Um… I think so… Yeah! Let's go!"

"Right then. On my lead!" Sonic curled into a ball, the aura surrounding him brightening once again. Knuckles prepared to use the fiery drill move that had worked so well against Mecha Sonic, and Tails tried charging the electricity around him – Which came to him so much easier than he thought it would.

"And – BLAST AWAY!" Sonic yelled, and the three shot forward. With incredible, unbeatable speed, all three slammed into the robot at the same time – Milliseconds later, they did it again, and again, and again. The Master Emerald fell from the robot's grip, back down towards Mobius, and the three flew down after it, not bothering with Eggman now that the Emerald was back.

Eggman escaped the exploding robot in his Egg-O-Matic, a glass cover over it to protect him from the vacuum of space. He watched as the three super-powered annoyances flew the Master Emerald back down to the blue planet below, and grumbled to himself.

"I hate that hedgehog… At least it's almost time again," Eggman grinned evilly. "Just a few more weeks, and it'll be back, and I can change everything."

* * *

><p>Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles landed back in Mushroom Hill, just as the sun was setting where Angel Island had landed in the ocean. Sonic and Knuckles returned to their normal colors upon landing, and Tails' red cape dissipated into sparkles. A soft shaking confirmed that the island had indeed begun rising into the air again.<p>

"Heh, Egghead was really serious this time," Sonic said. "But we got him, in the end!"

"You two were a big help," Knuckles admitted. "I don't think I could've done it without you. Who knows what dastardly deeds he'd be using it for if you weren't here."

"… Are we friends?" Tails asked, looking to the red echidna hopefully.

Knuckles actually smiled, and chuckled. "After all that? Yeah, I think we're friends now."

"Yay!" Tails said, hugging Knuckles. "Oh… Sorry," Tails said, letting go of the older echidna. "Umm…"

Knuckles smiled. "It's alright, kid. Tell you guys what. It's getting dark, so… You two can stay here tonight, if you'd like."

"I think we'll take you up on that," Sonic said. "I'm beat, anyway, and that's comin' from _me_!"

Soon, all three were lying on the ground, in front of the Master Emerald, staring at the stars above. True to his word, Sonic was the first to nod off. Tails followed soon after, clutching Knuckles in his sleep as the echidna was sandwiched between the two brothers.

_Or… Maybe it could be three,_ Knuckles thought, as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Knuckles was running, chasing after a black hedgehog that looked remarkably like Sonic, though a bit older. His quills were turned up, not nearly as much as Super Sonic's, but still easily noticeable. His eyes were red, and throughout his fur were red streaks. Unlike the thin, tannish fur on Sonic's chest, this hedgehog's front was fluffy and white. His attire consisted of nothing but plain gloves, and odd shoes that fired little jets of flame out of them to let him skate over the ground.<p>

He was skating slower than usual to let Knuckles keep up, but he didn't know how he knew that. They were in a shiny, robotic base, with reflective surfaces everywhere. Knuckles caught a glimpse of himself as he passed in front of a glass window, and was shocked to see himself a year younger than he was now. His dream-self didn't care, though, and he merely got the thought of how he should've worn his hat today.

"Stay on your guard, Knuckles," Shadow, which was the name the dream gave him for the unfamiliar hedgehog, said. "I have no idea what Ivo is up to, but it can never be something good."

"Alright, Shadow!" Knuckles felt himself say. "I'll punch him into next week if he tries anything!"

"… Your parents were certainly right about your potential to be a great guardian," Shadow said. The two came across a large double door, and Shadow turned to Knuckles. "Care to do the honors?"

Knuckles grinned widely, and punched the door with all his might. It flew off its hinges, clattering to the ground. Knuckles and Shadow hopped over it, coming face to face with Dr. Eggman, or as Knuckles' dream provided, Ivo Robotnik. He was in his Egg-O-Matic, flying around and overseeing a huge machine, some sort of containment cylinder connected to a hoop large enough to fit the Egg-O-Matic through if it even went anywhere, containing a strange aqua-colored gem, which dream-Knuckles didn't recognize beyond it being a stone one of the crazies from the village had brought home one day a couple of years back, but real-Knuckles immediately knew to be the Cyan Chaos Emerald, along with seven other gems of varying colors but less brilliance than a Chaos Emerald surrounding it.

"Ah, Knuckles, Shadow!" Robotnik said. "How… Pleasant to see you."

"What are you planning, Ivo?" Shadow yelled. "I know you didn't just chain up this planet for no reason!"

"Quite right, Shadow. But it doesn't matter, anyway." Eggman pushed a button on his Egg-O-Matic, causing the eight gems to light up and the hoop to fill with a swirling vortex. "Because your entire future is about to change! OH HO HO HO!" He flew the Egg-O-Matic through the hoop, and it disappeared through. Acting quickly, Shadow grabbed onto Knuckles' wrist, and leapt in after Eggman, for parts unknown.

* * *

><p><em>If you're asking yourself, "What the heck just happened?", then I have succeeded in my mission.<em>

_And, wow! This is THE longest chapter I have EVER written, clocking in at over five thousand words, not including this note!_

_So, Tails' and Knuckles' Super forms use their designs from the comics – Mostly because four out of the six canon Super forms in the games are "glowing golden". The other two are "glowing pink" and "on fire". So I did that for more variety. I almost did my own design of Super Tails, which would have had him turning silver with green eyes, to go along with Sonic's gold with red eyes as a reference to the series that introduced me to Sonic in the first place. I went with this, though, because it is underwhelming in appearance, and the canon reason for Tails not going super more than 2-3 times is his lack of experience._

_The idea for making the asteroid field rings around the planet came from how utterly unrealistic asteroid thickets are, and how there's a planet with rings visible in the sky in the movie… Even if it's obviously not Earth/Planet Freedom/Mobius, I thought the concept was cool._

_What Tails did to the wiring of the robot – He took out the resistors, and reconnected the wires. If you don't know how electronics work, he gave it essentially zero resistance – And, therefore, essentially infinite current. Electronic devices will give out under an overload of current. I wanted him to do something with his smarts, and that was what I came up with._

_So, there we go. That's the end of the beginning of this story. Stay tuned! Soon enough, we'll meet a new character – All hearts, lovey, pink and hammer-whacky._


	9. Time for Adventure

**Chapter 9: Time for Adventure**

* * *

><p>Knuckles kept the strange dream with the strange hedgehog to himself. Even if it felt so real, like it couldn't possibly be anything but some sort of memory, it had never happened. The last echidna apart from him had been his father – Who had died ten years ago.<p>

It had turned out that Tails, while an excellent pilot, had terrible landing skills. The Tornado 2 had ended up crashed into a tree near the edge of the island, which meant Sonic couldn't go home easily. It was an easy fix according to Tails, but he'd need ready access to everything at their house to do it.

Which led to Knuckles having to steer Angel Island out to the edge of South Island. Thankfully, nobody lived near Sonic and Tails, so there wasn't really an issue there. With Knuckles' help, the Tornado 2 got back down to the beach in one piece.

He kept Angel Island near South Island for a while, because he did, honestly, want to be around Sonic and Tails, and get to know them some more. Every day, between working on the plane, Tails would come up and visit with him, and they'd talk for a while. Knuckles really enjoyed the little fox's company – He was just so nice, innocent, and smart.

Knuckles continued guarding the Master Emerald, in the jungle near the edge of the island so it was easier to see Sonic and Tails. He kept the Chaos Emeralds with him, as well, since the echidnas had guarded them ever since their original hiding place was destroyed.

It was a night three weeks after the end of his adventure with Sonic and Tails when he heard something strange while asleep. Knuckles awoke immediately at the small sound, but kept his eyes closed. It might, of course, just be an animal. Or it could be a theif. Either way, alerting them would be bad.

The sound repeated itself – A footstep, crunching in the grass. Definitely wearing shoes, and judging by the volume, probably someone weighing about five or six times his own weight. Accompanying it were softer footsteps, sounding almost like Sonic's, but not quite the same. Just barely alongside these, he could hear the buzzing of an insect, and the whooshing sound of someone trying to move silently by staying in the trees.

"So, Whaddaya think, boys?" A loud voice asked. Probably the big guy, judging by the volume. "A deserted floatin' island. Ain't that somethin'?"

"BEE!" A high-pitched voice yelled. "CHARMY! BUZZ!"

"Are you sure about that, Vec?" Another voice asked, completely ignoring the high-pitched squeal before him. "I mean, there was a carnival. And I think Sonic might have mentioned this place to me if he was worried, considering it's floating right over his house. Why are we here?"

… Friends of Sonic's? But Sonic hadn't sent them here, then who?

"Because the Chaotix never turns down work that pays, Mighty!" The first voice… Vec, maybe, said.

"Even if it involves possibly intruding on someone's home?" Mighty asked. "Espio, what do you think?"

"I revel in the darkness," A voice said from higher up, and Knuckles instantly knew it was whoever was moving through the tree. "Stealth is my modus operandi. Qualms about breaking and entering have no place for a master of ninjutsu."

"… You snuck into my room and stole my candy again, didn't you?"

"The ninja must inform you that he cannot lie, and that may not be the opposite of unfalse."

"BAD ESPY!" The high-pitched kid yelled. "CHARMY SAYS NO STEAL! OOH SHINY ROCK LET'S TAKE IT!"

"Shaddup!" The loud one yelled. Knuckles decided it was time to actually get a good look at these guys, and opened his left eye just a bit.

About twenty feet away were a very odd group of individuals. The biggest was a mobian crocodile, bright green in color and wearing headphones on his head, along with a belt that seemed to be completely pointless. He wore huge black sneakers, along with large black cufflinks in a similar style on his gloves. He seemed to be the leader, probably around sixteen or seventeen years old.

Next to him was an armadillo with a red shell. He was eerily similar to Sonic, apart from his species – Maybe an inch or two taller, a year or two older, but if you'd only seen their silhouettes from the front you'd be hard-pressed to tell which was which. Even his shoes and gloves were identical to Sonic's.

Nonchalantly standing on the side of a tree was a purple… Thing. Knuckles didn't recognize the species, some sort of reptile, with a very pointy yellow nose and long, curly tail. His shoes and gloves were pretty plain, though they were accented by very odd cuffs on both his ankles and wrists. The wrist ones were particularly elaborate. He looked to be about the same age as the armadillo, but it was hard to tell.

The last member of the group was a tiny bee, who couldn't be older than three years old. He wore a helmet and a vest along with his gloves and shoes, and simply buzzed around the others, ignoring pretty much everything they were doing.

"The awesome and amazing ninja also wishes to inform you that there is a person sitting against the big shiny rock and he is awake."

The other three turned to look at Knuckles, and he got up. He was a bit wary of them, but decided to give them the benefit of the doubt, since one of them knew Sonic. He didn't move away from the Emerald, though, before making his greeting.

"Hello," Knuckles said. "I'm Knuckles the Echidna. Now, tell me what you're doing on my island and how you know Sonic."

"You know Sonic too?" The armadillo asked. "… Guess that makes sense. I'm Mighty the Armadillo. Well, anyway, we were best friends when we were younger, before Robotnik attacked. Once he did, we tried working together, but… I'm really not up to fighting, even robots… But I still wanted to help people, so I joined these guys with their detective agency."

"Tell him our whole life story, will ya?" The crocodile grumbled.

"That's Vector, our leader. He's… Um… Well, you'll probably figure him out pretty quick. The hyperactive kid is Charmy, Vector's his legal guardian and we couldn't find a babysitter, and this didn't seem too dangerous. The 'stealth-master ninja' on the tree is Espio. He's a chameleon. He's only stealthy when he's invisible and not bothering with his dramatics."

"Your training is a waste of time!" Espio yelled. "You are a disgrace! A ninja never reveals the secrets of his trade! For an example, do I, the awesome ninja, go around telling people I can walk on walls and turn invisible? Because, as an awesome ninja, I can do both of those things. And throw ninja stars. Be very wary of rousing a ninja's wrath, echidna!"

"… So, yeah, that's us," Mighty said. "We're here because… Well, someone down there paid us to check it out. So, if there's nothing else here, then… I guess we should probably just go."

"But Mighty!" Vector complained. "Waddif that rock's valuable?"

"Go near it and I'll knock you out," Knuckles said. "Really. Just go down there and tell them Sonic knows or something. They know Sonic, right?"

"Oh, sure, everyone's heard of him. Well, if that's all, we're off!" Mighty said, turning around to walk away.

Before he could walk two steps, something blue crashed down in front of him. A cloud of dust obscured it at first, but it was soon apparent what it really was. Blue metal glinting, and glowing red eyes, this was obviously a new robot of Sonic. This one was different from the last – Smaller, sleeker, closer to Sonic's real height.

"Oh, great…" Knuckles grumbled. "You! Get off my island, or you're about to be a pile of scrap."

"Humor. Laugh. Laugh. The echidna believes he can take me. Introduction. I am Metal Sonic. I am the one true Sonic. Demand. Hand over the Chaos Emeralds, rocks-for-brains. Threat. Or I will rip your spines from your head and use them to turn you into an anteater-kabob."

"I can take you on!" Knuckles yelled. "And protecting the Emeralds is my duty!"

"The most awesome and amazing ninja in the world will also assist you in your endeavor, most honored guardian of the beryl," Espio said, bowing to Knuckles while still standing on the tree.

"Thanks," Knuckles said, charging forward to punch at Metal Sonic. The robot, however, was already gone when Knuckles' fist met where it had been a moment before – It had vanished with such speed that it seemed to have teleported. A second later, Knuckles was met with a robotic kick in the back of his head. He stumbled, but he was made of tougher stuff than most mobians were, so it didn't truly injure him.

"Taunt. Your speed is pathetic." Metal Sonic said, before disappearing again. Espio threw one of his shiruken in a random direction, and a clank was heard as Metal Sonic fell to the ground. By this time, Knuckles was back on his feet, and went flying towards Metal, fist ready to bound the robot straight into the ground. Once again, Metal was gone before he reached him, and his fist hit nothing but grass.

Mighty suddenly curled into a ball, just as Metal appeared next to him to deliver a kick. The armadillo rolled into a tree, ricocheting off it and right into where Metal just was a second before. He uncurled, and punched a spot to his right, causing a metallic clang as Metal was hit by the punch and flung into a tree.

Knuckles leapt up to try and punch the robotic hedgehog again, but it was once again too fast for him. Mighty threw another punch, hitting Metal out of his super-speedy attack again.

"Query. How do you react in time?" Metal asked, before disappearing again. A kick from Mighty brought him to the ground, where Knuckles finally had a chance to punch him. Vector joined in, slamming down onto the robot with a powerful shoulder barge.

"I studied martial arts," Mighty said. "And my usual sparring partner was Sonic."

"Understood. I see. Taunt. YOU'RE TOO SLOW!" Electricity suddenly arced out from Metal's body, electrifying Knuckles and Vector into letting him go. The robot disappeared from sight, reappearing next to the Master Emerald and grabbing the seven smaller gems that were nearby. Before Mighty could reach him to stop him from taking the Chaos Emeralds, Metal had collected all of them and was nothing more than a faint streak of blue in the sky, leaving Mighty, Espio, and Charmy alone with the unconscious Knuckles and Vector.

"… The ninja apologizes for his failure, and says that on his ninja honor that he shall now turn in his title of ninja and instead become a detective, like he has always dreamed of."

"First, we're already detectives. Second, anyone who hasn't fought Sonic wouldn't have stood a chance against that guy," Mighty said. "… I hope Sonic's okay."

* * *

><p>When Knuckles woke up again, it was already morning. Vector was still out, snoring soundly. Charmy had collapsed on him, while Mighty and Espio were already awake, talking to each other.<p>

"What happened?" Knuckles immediately asked, harshly.

"Metal Sonic KO'd you," Mighty said. "He grabbed the Chaos Emeralds – I've seen them before, don't look so surprised – And flew off to the northeast."

"Then I've gotta go after him," Knuckles said, running to the edge of the island and leaping off, completely ignoring the small plane on the edge. "Watch the Master Emerald for me!" He yelled as he glided down towards South Island's southern beach, where Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails made their home.

Minutes later, he was banging on the door of the crashed plane, trying to wake up Sonic and Tails. The door was soon opened by a sleepy fox who was lucky he was a whole lot shorter than the echidna.

Tails yawned, not even caring that Knuckles' fist had gone a few inches above the tops of his ears. "Whazzup, Kn..." Tails trailed off, closing his eyes and beginning to snore while still standing up.

"It's Eggman!" Knuckles said. That got Tails' attention. The little fox jumped at the name, and immediately ran in to wake Sonic up. Knuckles followed him, and found Sonic fast asleep on a bed shaped like a racecar. Next to it was a plain bed with just a pillow and a blue sheet, which had to be Tails'.

Tails was shaking Sonic awake, and the hedgehog… Wasn't trying too hard to get up.

"Five more minutes, bud…"

"But Sonic! Robotnik's doin' somthin'!"

"Huh? Eggy?" Sonic asked. "That's nice…" He turned over, snoring. Ten seconds later, his brain finally processed what Tails had said. "Eggman's attacking?" He jumped out of bed. "Alright! I think you two know what time it is, then?"

"Egg-beating time?" Knuckles asked.

"Heck yeah!" Sonic said, pumping his fist in the air. "Where is he?"

"Northeast," Knuckles said. "That's all I know for sure."

"Well then, what are we waitin' for? We're up, over, and GONE!" Sonic exclaimed, tearing out the open door. Tails and Knuckles were quick to follow their speedy blue teammate, ready to take on whatever challenge Eggman had for them now.

As they were running to wherever Metal Sonic had gone, Knuckles explained the situation to the two speedsters.

"Egghead's got a new robot double of you," Knuckles said. "And this one… It was _fast_. Fast enough that I couldn't see it move. There were a few other people on the island last night, and the only one who could even see it move was this armadillo who-"

"Mighty?" Sonic asked, surprised. "Oh! The Chaotix!"

"Yeah, them. I left them to guard the Master."

"Couldn't think of anyone better. They might want paying, though… Well, Vector will, for sure. Mighty just likes helping folks."

"… I'm… Going to wait to tell them I'm broke."

"Or just give 'em stuff from the island to sell," Sonic suggested.

"Hmm… Crystals from Lava Reef, maybe?" Knuckles asked. "Eh, I'll figure it out after we crack the Eggman wide open."

"Sounds like a plan!" Sonic said, grinning.

Knuckles turned to Tails, who was running right behind him. "Hey, kid. Everything alright? You're being awfully quiet."

"Jus' thinkin', Knuckles," Tails said. "D'you think we'll meet a new friend?"

"Why not?" Knuckles said. "… Though don't be surprised if you get in a fight with 'em first. Remember how I was a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah!" Tails said, smiling. He cleared his throat. "WEE HEE! FOOOOOOOOOOOLS! GET OFF MY ISLAND! EGGMAN IS TOTALLY ALL GOOD N' STUFF!"

"… Eh, close enough," Knuckles shrugged. "When do you think we're going to get to this place Eggman's…" He trailed off, slowing to a stop at the same time Sonic and Tails did.

In front of them was a beautiful lake, some mountains surrounding it. The lake was surrounded by a huge green field, wildflowers appearing here and there. Near the cliff edge that dropped to the lake itself, there was a picturesque little pink cottage. It would've been the perfect image of beauty, if not for one important detail. Above the lake, a tiny planet was connected to the rock formations surrounding it by chains.

"… I think we've found ourselves a rotten egg," Sonic said. "… Something about this picture looks familiar…"

"Wasn' there a drawing of the lake in that watery place on Westside Island?" Tails asked. "It even had the planet, too."

"That's it!" Sonic said. "Well, prophecy coming true time, I guess. Um… Why don't we see who lives in that house? Maybe they can tell us something. If we know why Eggman wants this place, maybe it'll help."

"Good idea," Knuckles agreed, and the trio set off for the little pink cottage.

* * *

><p>The person who opened the door was a young pink hedgehog. Her spines were styled just like Sonic's, and she wore a red dress, along with a matching headband and boots. Upon seeing that Sonic the Hedgehog had opened her door, she squealed and hugged him.<p>

"Omigosh I can't believe it Sonic the Hedgehog is really here **I LOVE YOU**!"

"Uh… Miss… er…"

"Amy Rose!" The little hedgehog girl said.

"Amy… Could you please let go?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, sorry!" Amy said, letting go of the older hedgehog. "Come on in! Sonic is always welcome in my home!" She sighed dreamily as she led Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles inside. She sat them down at a little table, pausing when she saw Tails.

"You…" she said. "Your tails…"

"… Oh no…" Tails whispered. He'd been afraid of this…

"Your tails are so **CUTE**!" Amy yelled, stroking them. Tails froze at the contact, and didn't calm down until she let go of him, something the pink hedgehog was oblivious to but didn't escape Knuckles' or Sonic's attention. As soon as she left to go make them some tea (completely ignoring Sonic's insistence that they were in a hurry), Sonic spoke to Tails.

"You're fine, bud. You're not in Bridge Zone anymore, she's not like them… And if I got somethin' to say about it, you're never goin' back there."

Tails smiled a bit. "Yeah… Thanks, Sonic."

"Anytime, little bro," Sonic said, hugging Tails.

At that moment, Amy came back in with tea and cookies, and finally agreed to answer Sonic's questions.

"What's with the little planet chained above the lake?" Sonic asked.

"Chained?" Amy asked, glancing out the window. "Huh? That's new… Oh! That's why you're here, isn't it? You're such a hero! Anyway, that's Little Planet! Once a year, it shows up above Never Lake! It's said to be the resting place of the Time Stones, seven powerful gems that can manipulate the flow of time! And the source of their power, too… They can't really work without Little Planet there."

"… So Robotnik's gonna mess with time?" Tails asked. "That's… But he could do a lot of bad stuff! Like change the past an' make it so a bunch of stuff never happened and bad things happened instead!"

"Yeah, he could, totally!" Amy agreed. "But Sonic's the best! You'll stop him, right Sonic?"

"It's what I do," Sonic agreed.

"An' I'll help!" Tails agreed. "An' Knuckles too, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, definitely. What was that about changing the past?" Knuckles asked. Something bothered him about all this, there was something strangely familiar about the whole situation.

"Oh, yeah, he could do that with the Time Stones… But you three will stop him! And maybe I can help, too!" Amy exclaimed. "… But I don't have anything to use as a weapon…"

"Here!" Tails said, handing his hammer to Amy. "You can borrow this!"

"Thanks!" Amy said, testing its weight. "Ooh, nice! I like it." She snapped her fingers, and the hammer disappeared in a puff of smoke. "I'll get it back when I need it."

"… Okay… I guess we can try this out," Sonic said. "You can come along. Anything else before we go?"

"Tarot readings!" Amy squealed. "… Sorry. Um, I'm a bit into fortune-telling and stuff, so… I was wondering… maybe-I-could-try-and-read-your-future?"

"… Sure, whatever, but make it quick."

Amy pulled out three cards in front of Sonic, and looked at them for a few moments before speaking. "Let's see here… From what I'm getting, in the past, you've endured a lot of hardships. You never let it get you down, though, and go where the wind takes you. You'll have a lot more challenges in the future, but you'll make it through in the end, and be the hero to everyone."

"… Sounds like me," Sonic said, smiling. "Now do Knux."

"Knuckles," Knuckles said automatically, still trying to figure out what about this was bothering him.

"Right!" Amy said, pulling out three more cards and looking over them. "Hmm… You've got a strong sense of duty, and, in the past, were concerned with nothing but that. You're learning to have friends and be around others now, and not think about your duty so much. When you find balance between your friends and your duty, you'll be truly happy."

"Hm? Oh, yeah. Balance. Balance is good," Knuckles said, still trying to figure out what was bothering him. Something about shadows? Or a shadow? That sounded more like it…

"My turn!" Tails said excitedly.

Amy smiled, pulling out three cards, and stared at them for a while "… This doesn't make any sense."

"What's up?" Sonic asked.

"They're all blank," Amy said, confused. "… I can't tell you anything about Tails… I have no idea why, though…"

"Well, it probably isn't that important," Sonic said, waving his hand as he got up. "Let's go stop Eggman before he goes back in time and destroys a civilization or something."

As Sonic, Tails, and Amy ran out, it suddenly hit Knuckles like a ton of bricks. _Destroy a… My dream! Those were the Time Stones, that hedgehog said something about a planet chained… _Knuckles' mind was working a million miles a minute. _Eggman said that the whole future was going to change… The portal… All the stories, that Eggman already knew, even though no one else but me did… The fat man looked exactly like Eggman. The hedgehog looked exactly like the one from my dream. And the echidna… __**Me**__? But…_

Knuckles felt sick, when he realized what it all meant. _Eggman's __**already**__ changed the past and destroyed a civilization…_

* * *

><p>… <em>And that's not all, folks! If you want early spoilers, decode this cryptogram! It's inside another cryptogram. That may or may not be in another cryptogram, depending on the definition you use.<em>

_**3-12-23-26-9-26-11 22-14-18-7 20-12-18-5-18-15 26 8-18 8-15-18-26-7**_

… _Okay, in all seriousness, though, that's been planned out since the very beginning, and only came out 35,000-ish words later. As for the question of whether Eggman remembers the old timeline? Yes._

_So, Amy shows up! Basically, imagine her as her classic design, wearing her modern clothes without the golden bands on her gloves, and with green eyes, of course. And her hammer was Tails' first – also planned from the start._

_The Chaotix – Not much going on here. Maybe I'll do something more with them. Charmy, being three, says barely anything._

_Something I found out today: In Sonic Advance 3, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles can ALL use the Homing Attack if you partner them with Cream. Sonic and Tails use it just by pressing A near and enemy. Knuckles uses it by having B pressed while gliding (you can just hold it down) and being near an enemy. Also, Cream can't swim in any of her appearances, and cannot fly as long or as fast as Tails._


	10. Another Day

**Chapter 10: Another Day**

* * *

><p>Knuckles did not speak to the others as they made their way up the chain – Not to the happy little fox flying alongside his hero as the hedgehog simply jogged up the chain, or to the hedgehog girl twice his age he carried up. He wanted to talk to Sonic, tell him about this, but he wasn't sure Tails and Amy should here. Sure, Tails was smart, but he was only about four. Heck, he was freaked out by it, and he was nearly thirteen.<p>

It didn't take much time to reach the top of the chain. And from there, it took no time at all for Tails to set Amy down and for the two speedsters to dash off through the palm tree forest (which was weird in itself, come to think of it), leaving Knuckles and Amy to try and catch up.

Amy sighed, staring after Sonic. "He's so dreamy…"

"If you say so," Knuckles said. "… How fast can you run?"

"For Sonic, I'll go however fast I need to, until I can keep up with him!"

"… Okay… Could you just start running?"

"Fine…" Amy began running in place, kicking up a cloud of dust into Knuckles' eyes. Knuckles yelped, rubbing the dust out of his eyes just as Amy shot off like lightning… Or at least like Tails when he didn't feel like flying.

Knuckles ran after her as fast as he could. Amy was, admittedly, faster than he was, though with the help of his spin dash he was able to keep up fairly well. It wasn't long before he began noticing that this place wasn't entirely… Natural-looking. Everywhere he could see, there was some metal, looking like Eggman had gotten to the place a long time ago – It was certainly more than he could have possibly done in the less-than-a-day he'd had to have been here. And this place had something called Time Stones… Just more evidence that Eggman had, indeed, mucked up the past.

"It's weird how Robotnik got all this stuff here already, isn't it?" Amy asked, as Knuckles spun through a robot Sonic and Tails had missed while dashing through at sonic speed. "What do you think, Knuckles?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Knuckles said. "I want to ask you something, though… What do you know about this place, and the Time Stones?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Amy exclaimed. "Little Planet is the resting place of the Time Stones, which are magical gems which can be used to travel through time. If you go to the past… I don't know what would happen. I think it could change it, but it could also turn out you were supposed to anyway, or… I really don't know. I always read that time is really unpredictable."

"… How would you tell if the past were changed?"

"… Uh… Weird question, but, alright. You'd have to somehow get involved with something that… I guess, slipped through the seams? It's hard to explain… Some sort of weird… timey… thing. No idea what one would look like, or even if it'd look like anything."

"Thanks."

"Why did you ask?"

"Maybe I'll tell you later." If he needed to. He hoped not.

"Okay. Where do you think Sonic went?" Amy asked, sighing dreamily.

"To beat up robots and stop Eggman," Knuckles said bluntly. "I'm sure we'll walk in on him right in the middle of what he calls a 'boss battle' sooner or later."

Knuckles' prediction of what Sonic and Tails were doing turned out to be completely accurate – A ways ahead of the pink hedgehog and red echidna, blue hedgehog and yellow fox were facing off against a powerful robot built to resemble Sonic at that very moment.

They'd just been running through, smashing the smaller, easier badniks without any difficulty at all. Sonic asked why Eggman even bothered building them, and Tails suggested that maybe he was lonely. Sonic had laughed, even if he personally didn't quite believe that Eggman really cared about _anyone_.

As soon as their little conversation had ended, Metal Sonic had showed up, crashing to the ground in front of the two and kicking up a cloud of dust, forcing them to stop.

"Subject Sonic the Hedgehog located," the robotic voice said from the dust. "Subject Tails located. Objective: Destroy subjects."

"Heh," Sonic laughed. "So, you're the new knockoff bot, huh?" As the dust began to clear, Sonic got a better look at Metal. "Well, you're certainly better lookin'. Not so huge and bulky."

"Explanation: The sleeker, more streamlined design allows for me to be a better match for your speed. Offer: How about a demonstration?" To slower eyes, it would have looked like Metal had vanished. To Sonic, though, he simply moved very fast, taking just milliseconds to accelerate. Sonic was still able to see exactly where he was coming from and kicked his double in the head before he hit him. Metal Sonic was flung backwards into one of the many palm trees that littered the area.

"How's that?" Sonic asked, wagging his finger. "Face it, buddy, I'm too quick for ya!"

"Counter. What about the baby fox?" Metal said, as he suddenly zipped off again, this time towards Tails. Sonic turned to try and reach the little fox before the robot did, but, while he was fast, the only way he could hope to build up that kind of speed that quickly was with a Super Peel-Out, as he'd taken to calling it, but he still had to prepare for that.

He needn't have worried, though – Tails was ready for Metal, and moved his tails in front of him. While the fox's tails hadn't been particularly strong three months ago due to lack of use, Tails spent a lot of time doing nothing but flying now, even if he didn't need to.

With his tails braced for impact, a normal badnik would have been sliced to ribbons moving at this speed towards the little fox. As it was, Metal was no normal badnik, but still crashed into the twin appendages like they were a steel wall.

Ever fast to calculate and react, Metal grabbed the fox's tails, and flung the little fox towards Sonic. Tails was able to catch himself in midair, and hovered next to his hedgehog brother.

"M'not a baby!" Tails said. "Can't beat us both!"

"Taunt. Bring it, slow-mos!" Metal said, before dashing out of sight.

"You did NOT just say that, faker!" Sonic and Tails tore off after Metal Sonic, slowly gaining on the robot. It became clear that this knockoff was, truly, FAR faster than the previous two. As they were running, the robot suddenly stopped, turning on a dime and slamming into Tails before the fox knew what hit him. Sonic screeched to a halt, but the robot had Tails in his arms already, and arcs of electricity were shooting from the robot to the fox.

Tails' fur frizzed up, making him look quite a bit bigger than he really was, but he seemed uharmed. Certainly not hurt enough that he couldn't use one of his tails to grab Metal's arm and pull himself free. Tails stuck his tongue out as he flew back over to Sonic. Metal Sonic glared at the two, calculating his next move.

"Th'lightning di'n even hurt, Sonic," Tails said to his big brother. "… Why not?"

"Probably that electric thing you do," Sonic said, as he Homing Attacked Metal. "C'mon, bud, let's take this robot down!"

Sonic and Tails both began a spin dash, while Metal produced some sort of odd black barrier around himself and flew towards them. Out of nowhere, before Metal could reach them or Sonic and Tails could shoot off towards the robot, Metal was punched backwards by a spiked fist.

Knuckles yelped in pain – Whatever the black shield was, it hurt – But his goal was accomplished. Metal Sonic was flung into a tree just in time for Sonic and Tails to shoot forward and slam right into him.

"Thanks for the assit, Knux!" Sonic called out.

"Stop calling me that!"

"Analyzing…" Metal said, as it lifted off the ground. "Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Chances of my success in your defeat: 57%. Taunt. BRING IT."

Sonic smirked. "Gladly, faker!"

"Counter-argument! I think you're the fake hedgehog around here!" Metal yelled. He rushed forward, only to be met with a whack by a hammer.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY SONIC!" Amy yelled, whacking Metal again.

"Pink hedge-girl. Threat: Unknown. Action: Further analysis by Dr. Robotnik." Metal grabbed Amy, and flew off.

"SONIC! SAVE ME! AND THEN WE'LL BE…" Sonic didn't get to hear the last of Amy's plea, but he had a pretty good idea of what it was, and he didn't like it. But that was no reason to not help someone. Saving people was what Sonic did. So, Sonic did the only thing he would have ever done in this situation: He chased after Metal, Tails and Knuckles by his side.

If only he'd known what he was getting into at the time… Then, maybe, he'd have had second thoughts. Or maybe he'd just go ahead, because helping is what heroes do.

* * *

><p>Amy couldn't escape Metal's grip – The robot was too strong, ridiculously so. She gave up struggling quickly, and Metal flew her into a building clearly built by Dr. Eggman, that, strangely, looked very old. She didn't think about it too much, since she was preoccupied by her brain arguing with itself about how rescues were romantic and that she really shouldn't need a rescue in the first place.<p>

Metal dumped her into a cage, and flew off. Moments later, he was back with Eggman, who, in person… Didn't look that frightening. He was a fat guy with a mustache and needle legs, nothing more.

"… Metal. That's a little girl. WHY did you bring her here?" Even his voice sounded goofy.

"She is an unknown accomplice of Sonic."

"No! I'm gonna be his girlfriend!"

"… Very likely," Eggman said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And when did you meet Sonic?"

"About an hour ago! And already he's been in my house!"

"… Well, I see he's got his first useless crazed fan."

"HEY! I can do stuff!"

"Really? Like what?" Eggman asked.

"Like magic and seeing the future and-"

"Good. Metal, 'convince' her to work with us." Eggman said, grinning as he walked out of the room.

"… What just…"

"Praise. The great Doctor Robotnik just fooled you into spilling your skills for him. Excitement. Now for the fun part!"

If robots could grin evilly, Metal would have been doing so. Amy shuddered, closing her hand around the nearest bar. As Metal moved to open the cage, she realized that it wasn't one of the cage's bars.

* * *

><p>Dr. Ivo Robotnik walked through the hallways of the base he'd built long ago, thinking to himself, tweaking his plans here and there to suit new information. He was not, generally, a patient man. After the incredible failure here he'd had a year ago – which, he mentally protested, was in no way <em>whatsoever<em> his fault, just his stupid uncle-experiment-thing and that dumb echidna – He really did not want to wait another year to make another attempt.

Despite his methods, Dr. Eggman did not condone chaos. Rather, instead, he wished for nothing but order. Having grown up in a world ravaged by a war between two groups of echidnas over an incredible power, he wanted nothing more for than it to end…

He was not the only one to wish for this, either. Scarcely a month before he'd discovered Little Planet, an armada of birds, supposedly descended from the Babylonians of legend, had begun a journey to look for the other six Chaos Emeralds. He never did find out what happened to them, but, in the end, it didn't matter. He took matters into his own hands, and used the one Chaos Emerald he'd been able to procure and the time stones to create a portal to the past.

By changing the past, he'd succeeded in preventing the conflict, though not in the way he'd intended. A mild calibration issue was all it took, and, instead of the destruction of the Master Emerald, suddenly the Chaos Emeralds had scattered all over the planet, and become a part of the world's history, instead of only one ever being found in four thousand years.

He'd left Shadow and Knuckles behind, to be taken by the changes to the timeline. They did not matter anyway, their old roles would just make things difficult. He did not know where Shadow was in this new timeline, but it seemed an incredible coincidence that the Knuckles of this timeline was the only echidna remaining. He came to the future again, leaving Little Planet behind, hoping to see the utopia he'd always dreamed of, a world where robots ruled.

What he found was something that was, in his opinion, so much worse. There was no insanely lengthy war going on, but there was no order, no control. Everyone went about their business, in their small little communities, if they could even be called that, and robotics, if anything, were even further behind than in the old timeline.

That of course, was when he vowed to fix everything. And he would have succeeded, too, if not for that meddlesome blue hedgehog. Truly, where had Sonic come from? The similarities to Shadow were unmistakable, but the hedgehog seemed to truly just be a hedgehog with odd powers.

And then there was that fox, Eggman thought, as he walked into the control room that held the machine that would make his plans all possible, along with all seven Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones. A two-tailed fox was unheard of, even in the old timeline where the numbers of mobian foxes were far greater than now. And there was something… Off about him, even apart from that, that he could not begin to explain. The fox, for whatever reason, radiated a strange presence. He was sure it was nothing to do with Chaos Energy, as he'd tried whenever he could to feel it himself from a Chaos Emerald, but to no avail, and yet no one else seemed able to feel the near-overwhelming presence of Tails at all.

He sat down in his seat, and began programming his machine to do what he needed it to do, and summoned some of his robots to the control room and the hallways leading to it. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were, inevitably, going to show themselves, and he needed to buy some time to ensure he would not fail.

Not a minute later, and his computer started giving him notifications that his robots were being destroyed fairly quickly, with the intruders making an average speed of approximately 200 mph through his maze of hallways. Eggman allowed himself a grin – That meant that clogging the hallways with robots had had his intended effect of slowing Knuckles down to less than half his top speed, and Sonic and Tails down to well under a quarter.

He finished his work, and the machine began charging. Almost immediately, one of the sensors on the console began to beep, and he shut it off. He couldn't believe he'd left the detector for anomalies in temporal energy on – That would have been an eardrum-bursting fiasco once the device was fully ready. Though, oddly, it had started several seconds before he'd predicted. No matter, he did have all seven Chaos Emeralds this time, instead of just one. A minor miscalculation was no real issue, as long as it did not get in the way of his goal.

Thirty seconds passed, and several things happened at once.

Knuckles punched the door down, crushing about five robots under the thick steel plate as Sonic and Tails rushed in after him to blitz around the room and start destroying everything in the form of highly destructive balls.

The portal Eggman's machine was to generate opened, creating a huge swirling blue vortex in the middle of the room. Knuckles reacted quickly, and threw the fallen door at it, which did nothing but suck the door far into the past.

Eggman heard a shout of "NINJA SNEAK ATTACK!" as a purple, reptilian mobian jumped down from the ceiling and began beating him up… With its tongue. Now, that was just utterly disturbing, but he had no more than half a second to think about it as the chameleon threw him into the wall, leaving him dazed. The chameleon then proceeded to yell "AWESOME NINJA STARS!", and began to throw shiruken at the portal, which, just like Knuckles' attack with the door, did absolutely nothing.

A wall suddenly collapsed, as Metal Sonic was shoved through it. The robot flew straight into the portal, being sucked to who-knows-where. If he could think clearly, Eggman probably would have yelled at the culprit – Amy Rose, wielding a hammer she got from who-knows-where, screaming something incoherent about stupid fakers, romance, and croquet.

As Eggman began to regain his senses just ten seconds later, the room was in chaos. Between them, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had destroyed every robot in the room with extreme ease. Espio had decided to leave Eggman alone, as he kept throwing more things at the portal to try and destroy it. Eggman picked himself up, scoffing at this. Honestly, there was nothing that could be thrown at that portal that could mess it up. What were they thinking?

Amy chose that very moment to toss the hammer Tails had given her earlier straight at the portal. Eggman rolled his eyes as the projectile flew near, all that would accomplish would be the loss of her weapon. When the hammer was three feet from the portal, bright bolts of lightning suddenly shot out of it, bathing the hammer in electricity and light. The inside of the portal suddenly changed from blue to an angry red as the hammer was pulled inside before Eggman could process what had happened, or even figure out what was so special about the hammer to do that.

He didn't have time to think, though – A sudden pulling sensation overcame him, and he was flung into the portal itself. He yelled an extremely manly battle cry as he flew into it, nope, totally not screaming, letting the one who ruined his plans know his displeasure as she was pulled in alongside him with a very girly scream. Amazing how she did that with her mouth closed, really.

* * *

><p>"THE AWESOME AMAZING NINJA DETECTIVE, WHO IS ME, SHALL PREVAIL! I SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED BY A MERE SWIRLY ENERGY THINGY! FEAR NOT, SONIC, KNUCKLES, AND YOUNG KITTY-FOX! FOR THIS IS NOT GOODBYE!" Espio screamed as he was sucked into the vortex.<p>

"How'd he say all that in one second?" Sonic yelled, as he hung onto Tails' arm, Knuckles hanging onto his own leg, and Tails trying his best not to get them pulled in while hanging onto one of the poles on the wall. "Maybe it's a secret ninja skill!"

"NOT THE TIME, SONIC!" Knuckles yelled, raising his fist… Of the same arm that he'd been using to hold onto Sonic. Knuckles grabbed at the ground with his knuckle spikes, but was slowly but surely dragged into the portal. Just as he lost his grip, he spared Sonic a glare, leaving him and Tails alone.

"Knuckles!" Tails yelled, but was too scared to move. "Sonic, we gotta do somethin'!"

"Hey, bud, we'll figure it out. I know it's scary, I'm scared too," Sonic said, reassuringly. "I think there's only one thing for me to do, keed. Take… take good care of yourself, bro." Sonic let go of Tails, jumping towards the portal, nothing but determination on his face.

"SONIC!" Tails yelled, taking a step forward to try and catch him, but the hedgehog was already gone, leaving Tails alone in the room. Tails' ears and arms drooped, and he began to cry a bit. Sonic had just… And he'd never… NO! That wasn't how it was going to be. Tails wasn't going to just let this happen, he was going to get his friends out of this! Tails ran for the portal, and jumped in. As he crossed the threshold, lightning began to crackle from the edges of where the portal met the real world, but he was moving too fast for it to strike him.

He turned around in mid-air, to watch what happened to the world behind him, but he wished he hadn't. The lightning from the vortex had struck itself, and… Something was happening. The edges of the portal back to where he'd come from were getting closer together, fast. With a resounding boom, they slammed together, sending Tails hurtling through the vortex as its colors changed from red to yellow.

* * *

><p><em>Aaand… There! It took a while, but it's finally done! So, this was hard to write, since it's kind of a transition chapter, and there's also the whole thing about the school semester coming to an end, so that also meant more work for me. But, here we are! So… Time travel. Yep, planned from the beginning – That's why I chose this title. And there's those hints, here and there, that Eggman did something in the past.<em>

_I included a sort of POV for Eggman, to give some insight into him… He's a bit deluded, and doesn't quite seem to grasp that he's completely amoral and that his idea of a utopia is anything but. Also, some exposition from him – Hopefully the puzzle pieces I've provided start to fall into place. It might not be the longest chapter, but I hope it gives you something to think on._

_So a couple more notes – Amy using the Super-Peel Out comes from Sonic Advance 3, where she can use it when partnered with Knuckles. Sonic is unable to perform it in this game, though he still did it in an earlier chapter of this story._

_Metal Sonic is not good at strategy – He is, after all, based on Sonic._

_Espio returns! After seeing the response for him here, I decided to bring him back. The others might show up, at some point, but it'll be awhile yet, since, well, everyone just went through a time portal to who-knows-where._

_I've also been working on something that I think is very cool, but others might not. I'm trying to program a Sonic the Hedgehog game engine in Unity3D. I think I've made some progress, too, it already supports Sonic and Mario Galaxy styled level design, with variable gravity and the ability to run up walls and ceilings, along with being able to run across the surface of water and multiple playable characters. Hopefully I'll be able to get far enough with it to release it for people to use, eventually!_

_Also, I am, obviously (because I'm me) going to write another Mario/Sonic crossover at some point. The ones I've written so far have been adaptations, so... Any ideas for a game to be based on, or, if it's good enough, a plot to work off of?_


	11. Out Of Order

**Chapter 11: Out of Order**

* * *

><p>There were certain things Knuckles expected upon being sucked into some crazy vortex. Okay, that was a lie, but there were still things that he definitely did NOT expect. Waking up in a soft bed was one of them, especially since he didn't often sleep in an actual bed.<p>

He groaned, rubbing his head. He felt like he'd been hurled into a metal wall at high speeds.

"Ah, you're up! Marvelous!"

Knuckles' eyes snapped open as he whipped around to face the owner of the voice that sounded so much like Dr. Eggman's. He realized he was in some sort of metal room, with white beds throughout. Only two were occupied – One he was in, and one next to him holding a still-dozing Tails.

Standing near him was a man who looked very much like Eggman, and for a second, Knuckles believed it was, before he took in a few other details of the man. Though he greatly resembled Eggman, even having the same glasses, bald head, and mustache; it clearly wasn't him. This man was shorter, and not nearly so heavyset as Eggman. His moustache had faded to gray with age, too. His face was wrinkled, but less with age and more, Knuckles realized, with smiling a lot. He wore a simple white lab coat, over a brown outfit and blue slippers.

… In fact, the man seemed almost giddy, when looking at him. Why was that? Hadn't he seen an echidna… Right. Duh.

Next to the man stood a human girl with blonde har, wearing a blue dress, probably a bit older than Knuckles himself. When she noticed Knuckles looking at her, she smiled and waved at him.

There was one more figure in the room – Standing next to the girl was none other than the black hedgehog Knuckles had seen in his dream a few weeks back. He didn't so much as glance at Knuckles, or really do anything but stand there and look to the girl every minute or so. If Knuckles hadn't known better, he'd probably have thought it was a slightly older Sonic in disguise

Knuckles, having finished his assessment of the room and the people in it, turned back to the man in white, who'd been just standing there, seemingly at a loss for words.

"Uh… Hello?" Knuckles said.

The man grinned widely, and Knuckles began to wonder if this was a mistake. "Why hello to yourself, echidna! You took a bit of a nasty hit there, Shadow says he found you slumped against a wall with a nasty bruise on your head. Don't worry though, we patched you up, good as new! Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Gerald, or Professor, if you prefer. And these two are my family! Maria, my granddaughter…"

"Hello!" Maria said happily. "Very nice to meet you…"

"… Knuckles. The Echidna," Knuckles said awkwardly. "Uh… The last echidna…"

"Oh… I was afraid of that…" the man said softly, sighing. "… Truly, I'd hoped it was not so. I'm very interested in the echidna culture, you see. As I was saying though, this is Shadow. He's a bit shy."

Shadow ignored Knuckles, and just looked to Maria again.

"So… Yes. This is just amazing!" Gerald exclaimed, jumping in the air. "You – and that little fox, do you know him, by the way – Both showing up in one day! Though, I'll admit. I'm at a loss for how you got here…"

"Some weird swirly thing," Knuckles said. "… Where is here, anyway?"

"… Ah… Well… You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Gerald admitted. "So… Follow me, and I'll show you."

* * *

><p>Space.<p>

Freaking space.

Knuckles was too busy processing this little tidbit of information that he didn't even notice that Shadow and Maria had left the medical bay while they'd been gone. Tails was still asleep, and Knuckles flopped down on the bed he'd woken up in, hopefully to join him.

Gerald pulled a char over, and sat down next to Knuckles' bed.

"How the heck did I end up in space?" Knuckles asked, face-down on the pillow.

"I'm afraid I can't say for sure… But you say a swirly thing brought you here?" After a muffled yes from the echidna, Gerald continued. "… Well, I wouldn't call myself an expert in this, but… If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say you came through some sort of wormhole. Most likely, you merely traveled though time... That would explain both you and the fox."

"Tails," Knuckles said. "He's called Tails. And how would it explain him? He's just a fox with two tails."

"Tails, then. And he's not just any fox," Gerald said. "I… Ah… Did some medical tests on you two, primarily to help us best decide how to treat your injuries. Thankfully, they weren't too bad, which is easy to attribute to you both being Chaos adepts."

Knuckles gave a surprised look, but didn't interrupt Gerald.

"And, yes, I can tell that, my assistant – a hedgehog by the name of Charles – is one as well. Anyway, apart from the two tails, Tails has a few unusual characteristics. He lacks canine teeth, his tails and ears are both unusually large, and his muzzle is rather unpronounced. None of these are entirely uncommon on their own, but all together… Very unlikely indeed."

_Something_ about that list rang a bell to Knuckles, but he couldn't quite but his finger on it, so he just allowed Gerald to continue.

"So, I did a test on a bit of his tail fur, to confirm my suspicions. He doesn't match up to any extant species of mobian fox, which only leaves-"

"The foxes from Cocoa Island!" Knuckles exclaimed, interrupting Gerald and jumping out of the bed. "Tails is – and I never noticed – but… How? Cocoa Island was destroyed…"

"… I'm not sure what Cocoa Island is, but Tails is, indeed, a mint fox… And almost certainly also the last of his kind, assuming you're not from too much of a different time period. What year are you from?"

"I don't know! But Tails is a-"

"Yes," Gerald said patiently. "Knuckles, calm down. You can ask him about it once he wakes up."

Knuckles took a deep breath, and nodded. "… Why hasn't he waken up, anyway?"

"Hyper-accelerated healing tends to leave an adept with the ability fatigued. Now, since you don't know the year… Any prominent names you can thing of? If you're from the past, or possibly even the near future, I might be able to help."

"Okay… Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"Never heard of him," Gerald said, shaking his head. "Interesting name, though."

"Dr. Eggman? I mean, Ivo Robotnik."

"Ivo?!" Gerald exclaimed. "You know Ivo! He's my grandson, just eight years old right now… No, don't tell me _anything_," he said, as Knuckles opened his mouth.

"Whether you've only heard of him, or are his friend, or even his enemy. It could have unforeseen effects on the future if I knew. People you know, especially younger ones, might… Never have existed," He looked at the snoring Tails as he said this, and Knuckles shut his mouth, getting the message pretty quickly.

"So, be careful, okay? I'll do everything in my power to get you two home, but don't tell me anything that could change things."

"Okay," Knuckles agreed. "But… Um… Well, we're not the only ones who got sent through time…"

"I'll get my assistant in here straight away," Gerald said, turning to leave. "Tell Charles all about them, and he'll find them, sure and quick as his feet. After all, he _is_ the fastest natural-born hedgehog in the world," Gerald chuckled.

* * *

><p>"Metal Sonic. Come in, Metal!" Eggman spoke into his communicator. This communicator was special, as it allowed him to speak to Metal even if they were separated temporally. It might not be completely in sync unless a conversation was on, but that was the nature of time travel, and he needed a failsafe in case things went foul.<p>

Which, of course, they inevitably had. Though, Eggman supposed, he could have ended up in a worse place. He'd ended up near a restaurant he had fond memories of in both timelines, in the old one spending every birthday up until his sixteenth eating here (truly, their sandwiches were divine). In the new timeline, it'd been closed down while he was eight, because of some lunatic who had ordered their entire menu blasted the building to smithereens with some sort of laser gun when he figured out he couldn't pay.

"Pick up, you hunk of metal!" Eggman shouted, as he chomped through another of the twenty sandwiches he'd ordered.

"MS-003 reading loud and clear. And has been from the beginning, Doctor."

"And why didn't you pick up!"

"Amusement. It was fun to annoy you."

"… You'd better get it into your head that that will not be tolerated in the future," Eggman said, as he ate through another sandwich. "Where are you? Did you end up at the intended destination?"

"There are echidnas everywhere, and Angel Island does not float. You are a mathematical prodigy, so doing the math yourself should not be difficult."

"Good. Await further orders. Also, I have a question, Metal."

"Affirmative. I keep now secrets from you, doctor."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"It was no longer amusing to sound like a robot stereotype."

"You were just doing that because – Ugh. I made you too much like Sonic, didn't I?"

"I do not mind. And that was the plan."

"Right, right, yes," Eggman said, as he finished a sandwich and went to go pay. After being given the price, Eggman reached into his pockets and found he had no money, just the blaster he kept just in case things went very wrong.

Eh, he'd already analyzed the sandwiches with his nifty little scanner to get their recipes. There wasn't really a need for this place anymore, so he did the first thing he thought of.

* * *

><p>Sonic did what he did best – he ran, to try and sort everything out in his head. It had been a week – An entire week – since the incident in Eggman's base, and he hadn't seen hide nor hair of anyone that had been there. He'd felt so lost, at first… He'd ended up on a familiar beach, but it was missing the familiar sight of the thirty-year-old broken down passenger jet he called home. He'd run to the nearest town, and nobody had known him. Thankfully, it hadn't taken that long to figure out – He was just under fifty years in the past.<p>

So, time travel… Well, there was only one thing to do, then. Since arriving, Sonic had kept on dashing around the world, hoping to, at least, see some sign of his friends, and helping whenever he was needed. He was beginning to think that they might have been sent to different time periods, which would have been… Bad, to say the least.

Sonic was eating a chili-dog and reading a newspaper when he got his first lead on… Well, anything. The newspaper had reported on a man named Robotnik's scientific genius. Suffice to say, that got his attention. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't the Robotnik he know, probably a relative, judging by the picture.

The picture itself was a huge help, to. In it, standing behind the professor and trying to hide while still looking very confident in himself, was a hedgehog. Even though the picture was in black and white, Sonic recognized it instantly as the same hedgehog who had been in that mural in Marble Garden Zone.

Sonic, while rather impulsive and incredibly blunt, was not a stupid person. He figured out quickly that the hedgehog had, or would at some point (ugh, stupid time travel) travel through time himself. He had a lead, and a good one, he hoped. Now, the only issue was, how to get into outer space?

* * *

><p>Amy Rose was lost in a big city. She didn't recognize, well, any landmarks at all. She'd never even been in a big city before, so that wasn't a surprise.<p>

What was a surprise to her was that nobody paid her any mind at all – They just went about their days, acting like the little pink hedgehog girl wasn't there. Another surprise was the technology – She'd never known that cities had flying cars in them, or crazy underground elevator-thingies that could whisk you across town in a heartbeat. Even in anything she'd read about cities, she'd never heard of that.

Another thing that was different from how she read was how… Clean it seemed. Even small towns tended to have an odd smell around them from burning wood or gas, but there wasn't anything like that here at all. It was almost… Eerie, in a way.

Amy wandered aimlessly through the huge city, breaking into a run every now and then to try and figure out where she was faster. No matter how far she went, though, she couldn't find the edge of the city – It just seemed to keep going on and on, without any end in sight.

After around three hours, she got hungry. She still had a bit of pocket change with her, hopefully they'd take it here. She found a little bakery, nothing huge, and walked inside. There were a few people around, mostly humans, though there was one white-colored mobian hedgehog, a boy in his young teens, from the looks of it, who was currently buying a donut.

Amy got in line behind him, and waited as he counted out some change. It wasn't a long wait, but as soon as the hedgehog boy turned around and saw her, his yellow eyes went wide. "AMY!?" He yelled, causing everyone to stare at him. "Is that really you?"

"Who are you? How do you know me?" Amy asked. It wasn't every day a random hedgehog knew her name… And it might have been nicer if it was Sonic, and not… Whoever this was.

"Very funny, Amy!" The hedgehog laughed. "But, seriously, what are you doing here?"

"I don't know! How do you know who I am?"

"Hang on…" the hedgehog said, taking a closer look at Amy. "… Oh… I see… Come on, follow me! I'll explain back at my place!" The hedgehog said.

"No! I'm hungry! You'll explain here!"

"That's a terrible idea. Come on, I'll buy you food, and then, follow me."

"… Uh…" Amy actually couldn't think of much wrong with that. And if he turned out to be some sort of creep, she'd try one of those curses she'd been reading up on on him. "… Fine, I guess. But first, tell me who you are!"

"My name's Silver," the hedgehog said, reaching out to shake Amy's hand. Amy shook it cautiously, wondering what exactly she was getting into.

* * *

><p><em>Not the longest chapter of this story, and, actually, it's the shortest, but it gives you some idea of what's going on. So – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman all ended up around fifty years in the past, but not in exactly the same time and place. Metal Sonic is… Well, in a position where he could cause a LOT of damage, to say the least.<em>

_And Amy ended up IN THE FUTURE! Dun dun dun. This is the good version of Silver's future, where he comes from in games after Sonic 2006. And he's already met the present Sonic characters, but they haven't met him yet. That'll be confusing._

_And Espio… I've got a pretty good idea of where he is, but it's not completely definite yet, which is why he isn't here._

_And, yes, this means Shadow and Silver are now around. Shadow isn't quite so broody, since Maria is still alive, but that does __**not**__ make him a social person._

_Charles - Gerald's assistant - Isn't Sonic's uncle. Based on him, definitely, but Sonic does not have an uncle in this story. He helped to create Shadow. Another detail regarding Shadow's creation: This Shadow is not part alien. The Black Arms do not exist._

_So... Any preferences for who the next chapter should focus on? It probably won't cover the entire chapter, but who do you think would be most interesting to see?_


	12. Desyncronized

**Chapter 12: Desyncronized**

* * *

><p>Gerald had left a little while earlier, to find his assistant. Knuckles remained in the bed he'd been given, bored more than anything, as Tails continued sleeping. Apparently, he'd been exhausted; possibly from healing, according to the professor, but that didn't really match up with what Knuckles knew about Tails. Tails hardly even noticed it when he healed from something, it certainly didn't make him tired.<p>

Knuckles was still trying to figure it out, when Gerald returned about an hour later with a blue hedgehog in tow. His first thought was that they'd found Sonic already, but that bubble was burst when he took a closer look. This hedgehog wasn't quite the same shade of blue, more of a sky-blue instead of bright cobalt, wore glasses and a labcoat (but had the same sneakers), and was clearly older… Maybe by about ten years or so? Knuckles couldn't tell for sure.

Shadow had also come along as well, without Maria this time, looking overall to be rather uninterested in everything that was going on.

The blue hedgehog zipped over to Knuckles at super-speed, and held out his hand to shake. "Hello! My name is Dr. Charles Parlouzer, or Dr. Chuck! I'm the ARK's head researcher in the field of Chaos Energy, and Dr. Gerald's assistant!" Chuck was quite enthusiastic, just like Sonic, though he seemed more mature… Probably.

Knuckles took his hand to shake, and introduced himself. "Knuckles the Echidna… If I've got another name, I don't remember it. Guardian of Angel Island… Probably the last. My friend, there," He gestured to Tails with his free hand. "Is Tails, because he has two."

"So he does," Chuck said. "Interesting… Well, anyhow, Gerald came and got me because I'm the quickest thing on two feet. Then I figured something else out… You two are from the future, right? So… You must have come here with Chaos Energy, somehow! I figured, if we could track the energy signature of your time travel, we could locate your friends easily. Are any of you who travelled Chaos Adepts? As in, able to utilize the Chaos Emeralds without assistance?"

"Uh… Yes. Me, Tails, and Sonic… Sonic's Tails' brother, I think…" Knuckles said.

"Excellent! Shadow, here, was created from my own DNA, along with some tweaks, to make him far more sensitive to Chaos Energy than anyone else. He should be able to read your own energy signatures and use that to figure out what's different about them due to the difference in time period, seeing as…"

Knuckles stopped listening at this point, as Dr. Chuck was rambling about how the energy in the Chaos Emeralds evolved over time; and that because of how Chaos Adepts came to be, it would be very easy to track two Chaos Adepts from a similar place, along with a lot of other stuff Knuckles didn't really care to know about the Chaos Emeralds.

Gerald was looking on, an amused smile on his face as his friend rambled. Shadow seemed, once again, disinterested, but he was looking at Tails oddly. As soon as he noticed that Knuckles was looking at him, he glared, and then pointedly looked at a blank wall.

"… So, any questions?" Dr. Chuck finished. Knuckles had plenty, but he really did not feel like there was a reason to say anything.

"… I'm hungry," Tails said. Knuckles realized he must have woken up during Dr. Chuck's little lecture on Chaos Energy.

"Oh!" Gerald said, smiling at the fox. "You're awake! Yes, yes, I'll go fetch you something to eat. Chuck and Shadow can explain everything to you! Won't that be fun?"

"But the guy that looks like Sonic jus' did…" Tails said.

"Well, I'm sure you missed some things… What do you eat, anyway?"

"Candy!" Tails exclaimed.

Knuckles sighed. "Anything and everything but poultry and eggs."

"… Canned fruits and vegetables it is! I'll bring some for you as well, Knuckles!" Gerald left, leaving Knuckles and Tails alone with Dr. Chuck and Shadow.

"Like we've got anything else…" Shadow grumbled.

"And he speaks!" Dr. Chuck said. "Astounding. Ladies and Gentlemen… Or just the latter, I suppose, Shadow the Hedgehog speaks in the presence of someone other than his sister! This is a monumental-"

"Do you have to do that every time?" Shadow asked, irritated.

"… Well, no," Dr. C admitted. "But it's funny." Whoever this guy was, he was reminding Knuckles of Sonic… A lot.

"Right…" Shadow said. "… You two. Would you care to tell me a bit about your friends? I want to get this over with, and I'm sure you do, too."

"Sonic's awesome!" Tails said happily, namesakes twirling as he took flight. Shadow's eyes widened a bit; and the doctor gasped, looking at Tails like his birthday had come early. "He's a blue hedgehog and really fast and nice and…"

"He's quite a bit like you," Knuckles said to the doctor. "Only… My age, maybe a bit younger. And he's got green eyes; he's a darker blue… But, well, I actually wanted to ask something."

"Ask away," Chuck said.

"Okay… A while ago, I had a weird dream. It didn't seem that important at the time, but it felt more like a memory than a dream… But it never happened, not that I remember, and my dream-self remembered things I KNOW never happened… That's not the weird part, though. Shadow was there, and I think we were friends."

Shadow scoffed at the notion of being friends with Knuckles.

Chuck rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "When dealing with Chaos, dreams shouldn't be discounted… I've got a few guesses about that. One is that it's a normal dream, but I don't want to just say that, you know. Another is that something gave you a vision of what might have been; I believe the Chaos Emeralds have done that on occasion before…" He paused. "It might be… I'm only considering this possibility since you're a time traveler, but, maybe… Somehow, you could have been touched by something from a different timeline, showing you a memory from the timeline it originated from. That's more the stuff of legends, though… It may not even be true. But with the Chaos Emeralds…"

"Anything can happen," Knuckles said.

"Precisely. Now, about your friends…"

* * *

><p>The white hedgehog, after getting Amy some food, led her to his home. She still wasn't entirely sure this was a good idea; but… He did recognize her… Maybe she was in the future, and famous!<p>

Wait… That could be a bad thing. Well, she could... Wait, no, she lost Tails' hammer… And she wasn't good enough at magic quite yet to actually use it offensively.

No one paid Silver any mind as he walked through the city, rambling aimlessly to Amy as things around them would randomly start glowing blue and floating, before falling back to the ground.

"So, I'm Silver, and we've met before… Or later, I guess, for your. We're about two hundred years in your future, and I'm prettymuch the Team Sonic or the Bros for now. Oh, right, you don't know about that yet. Team Sonic means Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. You know them, right?"

"Met them today," Amy said, dreamily. "Oh, Sonic…"

Silver laughed. "The first time I met you… From my perspective, this is confusing… You actually thought I was him, and hugged me!"

"Really?" Amy asked. "How'd that happen?"

"Time travel, the end of the world, a misunderstanding when I thought Sonic was evil and tried to kill him but found out he wasn't and then teamed up with him to save the world-" Silver said all of this very quickly. "But it'll happen to you eventually. Maybe. I'm not too sure, honestly… I'm pretty sure Tails and I are the only ones who actually remember that. It was weird. So, anyway, the Bros… Now, that would be telling," Silver grinned.

"That's not fair!"

"… Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you, you're better off meeting them for yourself when you're… Twelve, I think."

"That's in four years!"

"Or two hundred years ago," Silver said 'helpfully'.

Amy gave him a look.

"… Okay, sorry Amy… Here's my place."

It was nothing special, really, just a small house, a lot like her own. Only, not pink, Silver seemed to have a thing for cyan, because everything was painted the same horrifically bright shade of blue-green. Even inside the house, which Amy refrained from commenting on and just sat down on the (also cyan) couch and waited for Silver to sit down with her to continue.

"So, yeah, I'm psychic, and…"

"Like mind reading and stuff?"

"Well, no, like psychokinesis… Or telekinesis, they're the same, but I think psychokinesis sounds cooler."

"Oh! I can tell the future…"

"So can I!" Silver grinned. "I learned it from history books!"

"… Oh, right… How'd I get here, anyway? I threw that hammer Tails gave me into that weird swirly-vortex thing and then it sucked everyone up."

"… Swirly vortex? Sounds like a rift, to me. Was it blue?"

"Yeah, until I threw Tails' hammer into it to try and hit that weird Sonic-bot-thingamabob. Then it went all red and lightning-y."

Silver closed his eyes, putting a hand on his chin in a classic 'thinking' pose. "… Definitely sounds like a rift… It sounds like, to me, the hammer was temporally unstable… Throwing it into the rift destabilized it, pulling you in… And probably everyone else, too."

"Temporally unsta-what?"

"Unstable. Something that, according to history, should not exist, but isn't an anomaly in and of itself... I'm not sure why Tails would have something like that, though…"

"Huh… Maybe that's why I couldn't tell his fortune…"

"Hm? Fortune-telling?"

"Oh! Yeah! I do that, remember! So, I gave Sonic, Tails, and that red dude, Knuckles or something, their fortunes right after I met them, with tarot cards! Sonic's and Knuckles' were pretty odd, but kinda expected, I mean, Sonic's a hero, right? But Tails had all the cards blank, for whatever reason. Maybe that hammer was interfering?"

Silver muttered something under his breath. "… How about you start from the beginning, Amy?"

"Well, Sonic and Tails and Knuckles showed up at my house, and then I thought Tails was so cute and I hugged his tails-"

"You did what?!" Silver interjected. "… Sorry. But Tails freaks out when people touch his tails."

"Oh… Why?"

"… I never asked," Silver admitted. "… Just, go on?"

"Right! Well, we had a tea party, and did the fortune telling thing, and then Tails let me borrow his hammer so I could help them out. He said he'd had it, like, forever, and it was really helpful… And then we went up onto little planet, you know, that appears above Never Lake, where the Time Stones are?"

"… Actually, no," Silver said. "Never heard of either… Tell me about them later, though."

"Okay! So, we went up there, Sonic and Tails ran off to fight robots or something…"

"Get used to that… They even did it in the middle of the Olympics – Don't ask – when it was time for the swimming event."

"Oh, well, we followed the trail of broken robots, and then I got kidnapped by a robot Sonic and Tails were fighting, and then all the stuff with the time portal thing happened and now I'm hungry again."

"There's plenty of food in the kitchen… I need some time to think, anyway…"

Amy excused herself, leaving Silver alone with his thoughts. "So, they've gotten into another crazy adventure, only this time it's before they even met me… Gotta figure out where in time and space they all went. And Tails…" Silver laughed, more nervously than humorously. " 'Nothing Special'… I think he's the only one who even believes that… Heck, he's already a flying fox that's basically a technological singularity… And now this… Maybe I should keep it to myself, though… Who'd think of a kid as a temporal anomaly, anyway?"

* * *

><p>"GUN…" Sonic said, looking at the sign on the large, bland, square building in front of him. "… Always thought that was a stupid name for a group that's supposed to protect people."<p>

It would have occurred to most people that waltzing into a government building and asking for someone from space might be a bit odd… And, most likely, not the best plan in the world. Sonic wasn't always known for having good plans, though, and wasn't really most people.

So, he snuck in… At least, if your definition of 'snuck in' was 'waltzed in and started slicing through evil robots at the speed of sound'.

"Why is it always robots?" Sonic asked, as he kicked an odd, orange, vaguely humanoid but far too round robot into a wall, where it promptly fell apart into a pile of scrap. "Seriously… First Eggman, now these guys." He did a Homing Attack into another of the weird orange robots. "What is it about 'hedgehog-killing robots' that speaks out to people, anyway?"

He opened a door that was oddly unlocked, and a cage crashed down on top of him, trapping him… For a few minutes, at the very least. The unfortunate thing about traps is that they usually don't need to work for very long if the trapper's nearby, and someone in a rather nice military outfit was sitting in a chair, waiting for Sonic. Behind him was a wall of screens, showing information Sonic couldn't make heads nor tails of

"So, Dr. K was right," the main said, standing up. While he wasn't young, by any means, Sonic noticed he carried himself with confidence and grace. "A blue hedgehog, nearly identical to the Project Shadow… Destroys his enemy's defense equipment to leave them helpless. Well, Mr. Hedgehog, that ends now. You're in our custody."

"Hey, those robots tried to kill me! What's going on here, anyway?"

"You're dangerous. So is Project Shadow; as our new head technician brought to our attention. And we guard the people of the world from danger… You'll have a front-row seat for the big spectacle next week, but, for now, just sit tight. The doctor's robots will be here for you shortly."

* * *

><p>"My tribe… They're planning to do terrible things," the orange Echidna girl confided to Metal Sonic. She'd taken him to see the Master Emerald's shrine, where it and – surprisingly – All seven Chaos Emeralds resided. The pedestals the Chaos Emeralds shined bright, newly built, standing out from the older Master Emerald shrine.<p>

Metal didn't really care about her at all, the Knuckles tribe could wipe out the Nocturnus for all he cared. Or the other way around, it simply did not matter to him. But he pretended – This echidna was the key to Dr. Robotnik's plans, after all.

"What sort of things?"

"They plan to use the power of the Emeralds for war… They should not be used for such conflicts; the Chao should not be disturbed!" She reached down and petted a chao as she said this, and it flew back to dance around the Emeralds with its family. "This place… It shouldn't be disturbed."

… Gosh, she sounded so… Preachy sometimes. He didn't say it, though, merely keeping up his 'nice-hedgehog-in-armor' persona.

"The Emeralds can do many great and terrible things," Metal said. Whatever that meant, he'd heard Robotnik say it a few times. The Emeralds were power, that was all that mattered. The only thing to do was to make sure their power was used how HE wanted it to be. But that needed time; if he absorbed too much of the Emerald's energy at once, she'd notice.

"They can… Twenty years ago, the island the Chaos Emeralds were hidden on was destroyed in a massive explosion of Chaos Energy… A man, I know not his name, came from somewhere unknown place… Are you aware of the story?"

"… It is the story behind my armor. If not for the blast, I would not need to walk as I do now." Not technically a lie, but he knew she'd interpret it as his 'armor' being a way to support him, or hide some disfigurement; rather than the explosion indirectly leading to Sonic's, and therefore his own, very existence.

"That's terrible… I'm glad to know I can count on you, though, Meta…" A butchering of his name, to be sure, but it worked out well for him. She never suspected a thing. "… You won't let that happen again, will you?"

"No. I will not." Another not-quite-a-lie. He certainly wasn't planning on the destruction of an island and the near-extinction of a race. He did not imagine for a second that she'd take kindly to his plans to use robotic armor to mind-control the entire population of the world and create a glorious 'utopian' empire under Robotnik to last for all eternity.

No, it simply wouldn't do to mention his creator's insane plans. Nor to mention to his creator that he believed he went insane, likely as a result of preserving his memories with a Chaos Emerald without being a Chaos Adept himself.

Best to just play it out until he was ready to enact his own, personal, plans, once he figured out what they were. Just a week, and he'd be ready to strike.

* * *

><p><em>Grandfathers<em>

_Reveal_

_Pseudonym_

_Traitor_

_So… This took a while to write. I'm REALLY happy with Metal Sonic's section, but the others… It varies. So, the four words there – Hints, some obvious, some less so. They are in order for each section, though._

_I've got a better idea for next chapter, though – Espio makes his comeback! And does something useful, instead of just saying how awesome he is. He'll still say how awesome he is, of course, but he'll be helping for real while doing it._

_Shadow may be happier, but he doesn't really know how to interact with people outside of his family._

_Also, time travel is weird. Metal's taking orders from someone 4,000 years in the future; and can therefore change the past without actually time-travelling himself, and... Don't think about it too hard._

_I also started another story - Called 'Dream Journal', based on M&L: Dream Team. With Sonic and Tails, of course. Not very far in, yet, but I wanted to post this before working on it some more._

_I've been working on that Sonic 3D engine in unity. I've got a lot more features in – Super Forms, Ring Loss, Homing Attack, music (with proper loop points, without needing to manually split the file in two, just entering the sample offset of the loop point), differing footstep sounds on different materials, ice physics, springs, dash panels, Light Dash… I think it's pretty cool, though I'm probably a little biased._

_Sonic Boom returns Saturday! I'm excited, for one. Not quite as excited as I am for the last Thursday of February (Something annual related to the number with the prime factorization of 2 * __2__ * 5 happens that day!), but still pretty excited._

_Sadly, it seems like I might not be able to get into any college courses this semester… I wanted to take that JavaScript class…_


End file.
